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"Notgeld" and other paper currency
Topic Started: Jul 7 2014, 12:05 AM (141 Views)
Jacapo
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Today I'll start my series on paper currency, starting with Austrian "Notgeld" of the period post-WWI. Notgeld is a word meaning emergency money and was used during times of hyper-inflation or the absence of government-backed cash. Notgeld by definition is currency not issued by the central banks of the country, and are issued by traders, banks, and municipalities and generally were only recognized with that business/municipality/bank.

Something similar in US history would be during the Civil War when certain companies began to issue tokens in lieu of coins as there was an extreme shortage of coins of all types. The US government quickly put an end to this when they realized the detrimental effect this would have on the economy.

Most of the examples I have shown below are 1/2 to 1/4 the size of a standard US one dollar bill.

I'm afraid I am no good at translating German - Petar may be of assistance here.

Whole set
Spoiler: click to toggle


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Edited by Jacapo, Jul 7 2014, 12:06 AM.
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Petar
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I can't read Gothic letters all that well, but from what I can see, the first one (below the spoiler) was issued by city/county Schaerding, which guaranteed the value of the money with its own movable and immovable assets. It was to be accepted as currency by that county until September 30, 1920, and its value was 50 Heller (quite a small amount, being only half a Krone).

The rest of the notes below the spoiler were issued by the county of St. Veit. The first was was to be accepted as currency until December 31, 1920, and was also valued at 50 Heller. The second one (I believe the two separate images are the obverse and reverse of the same note) bears the image of the castle of St. Veit. It is valued at 20 Heller, and was to be accepted as currency until December 31, 1920 as well. However, there's another date (April 25, 1920), but I don't recognise the word standing before the date. The name of the mayor of St. Veit is also present - I believe it says Job Rammerstorfer.
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Jacapo
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Thank you petar.

Job Rammerstorfer sounds like he was a fine gentleman.
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Petar
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I'm now looking at the big image in the spoiler, and I find it interesting that some of the notes (especially those from Steyregg and Schaerding) are called "Gutschein", or coupons in German.
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