5 Kronen, Stadtgemeinde Wiener Neustadt, 1918
Kassenschein der Stadtgemeinde Wiener-Neustadt ueber Fuenf Kronen
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This copy
- Accession
- OM-00296
- Series year
- 1918
- Actually issued
- 1918
- city_councillor_1
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- mayor
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- city_councillor_2
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- councillor_1
- Dr. Josef Mayer (Dr. Jos. Mayer) probable
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- councillor_2
- not read unread
Signed by hand in ink; the hand is not resolvable at 600 dpi.
- Grade
- VF (IBNS)
Circulated: soiling along the upper edge including one dark smudge, a wavy sheet and worn corners. Uniface, so the reverse shows only the face's ink through the paper. 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
- $5 indicative
Category benchmark scaled for grade — an order of magnitude, not an appraisal. Priced 2026-09-26.
- Dimensions
- 111.3 × 73.8 mm (±0.6, from the scan)
- Themes
- NotgeldEmergency moneyLower AustriaMunicipal financeEnd of the monarchyFirst World War
The type
- Type
- 5 Kronen, Stadtgemeinde Wiener Neustadt, 1918
- Printer
- Not established
- Rarity
- common
Inscriptions
Um die Bargeldnot zu beheben, gibt die Stadtgemeinde Wiener-Neustadt auf Grund des Gemeinderatsbeschlusses vom 29. Oktober 1918 im Einverstaendnisse mit der Oesterr.-ungar. Bank Kassenscheine bis zum Gesamtbetrage von 5 Millionen Kronen aus. Diese Kassenscheine sind unverzinslich, werden von der Stadtgemeinde Wiener-Neustadt bis 15. Maerz 1919 in Zahlung genommen und gegen Kassenscheine mit weiterer Laufzeit umgetauscht. Wiener-Neustadt, am 15. November 1918.
To remedy the shortage of cash, the town of Wiener Neustadt issues treasury notes to a total of five million Kronen under the council resolution of 29 October 1918, in agreement with the Austro-Hungarian Bank. These notes bear no interest, will be accepted in payment by the town until 15 March 1919, and will be exchanged for treasury notes of longer currency. Wiener Neustadt, 15 November 1918.
Symbology
- Consent of the Austro-Hungarian Bank
- The clause that dates this note more precisely than the date does. In November 1918 the bank of issue for both halves of the monarchy was still asked for permission before a town printed money; within a year the institution was in liquidation and nobody asked anyone.
- Uniface, on pink stock
- Printed on one side only. This is a wartime emergency instrument produced quickly, not a collectable - there is no picture on it anywhere.
- Five Kronen
- Not small change. A five-Krone note is a day's wages territory, and Wiener Neustadt's problem in 1918 was not that shops could not give change but that an arms town could not pay its workers.
- Exchangeable for notes of longer currency
- The town reserved the right to roll the debt over into fresh paper rather than redeem it. That is how a municipal note becomes a permanent loan, and it is exactly what happened next: by 1920 the town was issuing Heller scrip too.
What was happening
This is the earliest note in the Austrian group and the only one that belongs to the monarchy rather than the republic. The council of Wiener Neustadt resolved on 29 October 1918 to issue five million Kronen of treasury notes; the note itself is dated 15 November 1918, redeemable by 15 March 1919.
Those three weeks between the resolution and the date on the note contain the end of the Habsburg empire. On 29 October Austria-Hungary was suing for an armistice; it signed on 3 November; Karl I renounced participation in government on 11 November and the Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed the next day. The note went to press in the middle of that.
What makes it more than a municipal curiosity is the line about consent. Wiener Neustadt issued this im Einverstaendnisse mit der Oesterreichisch-ungarischen Bank - in agreement with the Austro-Hungarian Bank. The central bank of a state that was dissolving gave a provincial industrial town permission to print its own five-Krone notes. A year later the communes would stop asking.
Wiener Neustadt had reason to be first: it was the largest arms-manufacturing town in the Austrian half of the monarchy, with a locomotive works and an aircraft factory, and a wage bill it had to meet in cash every week.
This account belongs to the type, not this copy — it is shared by every 5 Kronen, Stadtgemeinde Wiener Neustadt, 1918 in the collection.
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