20 Heller, Stadtgemeinde St. Poelten, 1919
Kassenschein der Stadtgemeinde St. Poelten ueber 20 Heller
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00276
- Series year
- 1919
- Actually issued
- 1919
- deputy_mayor
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- mayor
- Hubert Schmoll uncertain
Read from the signature; not confirmed against a list of the town's mayors.
- councillor
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- Grade
- XF (IBNS)
Light overall soiling and a slightly wavy sheet; corners lightly rounded. No heavy fold through the design. Estimated from the 600 dpi archival scan, which shows folds, soiling and edge condition but not paper crispness, pinholes, pressing or small repairs.
- Estimated value
- $3.5 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-26.
- Dimensions
- 68.5 × 45.7 mm (±0.5, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldEmergency moneyLower AustriaMunicipal financeFirst Austrian Republic
The type
- Type
- 20 Heller, Stadtgemeinde St. Poelten, 1919
- Printer
- Gutenberg, St. Poelten
- Rarity
- very common
Inscriptions
Die Gemeinde St. Poelten haftet fuer diese Verbindlichkeit mit ihrem ganzen beweglichen und unbeweglichen Vermoegen. St. Poelten, 24. Dezember 1919.
The commune of St. Poelten stands behind this obligation with its entire movable and immovable property. St. Poelten, 24 December 1919.
Zur Linderung der Kleingeldnot gibt die Gemeinde St. Poelten Kassenscheine im weiteren Betrage von 75.000 Kr. aus. Dieselben sind unverzinslich, werden von der Gemeinde St. Poelten bis 30. Juni 1920 in Zahlung genommen und in der Zeit vom 1. bis 30. Juni 1920 in gesetzlichem Bargelde eingeloest. Die Nachahmung wird gesetzlich bestraft.
To relieve the shortage of small change the commune of St. Poelten issues treasury notes to a further amount of 75,000 Kronen. They bear no interest, will be accepted in payment by the commune until 30 June 1920, and will be redeemed in legal tender between 1 and 30 June 1920. Counterfeiting is punishable by law.
Symbology
- The town hall
- St. Poelten's Rathaus in the middle of the note, where a national issue would put a portrait. The building is the guarantor: what backs the note is the corporation that meets in it.
- Three signatures
- Deputy mayor, mayor and a member of the council, all signing by hand. A town of this size could still authenticate its money one note at a time.
- Kleingeldnot
- “The small-change emergency” - the phrase that appears on Austrian municipal money again and again. It names the whole problem: not a shortage of money but a shortage of the small denominations that daily trade actually runs on.
- II. Auflage
- “Second printing”. The town had to go back to the press, which tells you these were being spent rather than filed away.
What was happening
Austria in 1919 was a republic of six and a half million people left holding the currency of an empire of fifty. The Austro-Hungarian Bank was in liquidation, the peace treaties had cut the country off from most of its coal and much of its food, and small coin simply vanished: hoarded against worse to come, melted for the metal, or carried across the new frontiers where it bought more. Shops could not give change, and a country that cannot give change cannot trade.
So the communes printed their own. A council resolution, a local printer, a redemption date and the pledge of the commune's entire movable and immovable property - that was the whole legal apparatus behind several thousand separate issues of Heller notes between 1919 and 1921. Vienna tolerated it while it solved a real problem and moved to stop it in 1920, by which time the notes had found a second market: collectors would pay more than face value for a complete set, so a village could raise real money by printing money it hoped would never be presented. The artwork improved as the need receded.
St. Poelten is the largest town in Lower Austria and issued early - its notes are dated 24 December 1919, months before most communes got round to it, and before the province did. The sums are stated plainly on the back: 75,000 Kronen of treasury notes, interest-free, accepted by the town until 30 June 1920 and exchanged for legal tender in that month. Both denominations in this collection are second printings.
These are working notes rather than collectors' pieces. There is no verse, no folk woodcut and no Alpine view: an engraved rosette, the town hall, a formula, three signatures, and the printer's name - Gutenberg of St. Poelten - along the bottom edge.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 20 Heller, Stadtgemeinde St. Poelten, 1919 in the collection.
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