Austro-Hungarian 10 Kronen Banknote

From the Collection: An Austro-Hungarian banknote from the Great War Era, overstamped by the post-war successor state, German Austria.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, although all but forgotten by mainstream history, was the true instigator of the First World War, when their heir apparent to Kaiser Franz Josef, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo.

The Krone was adopted as the universal currency of Austria-Hungary in 1892, setting the Empire on the gold standard and replacing the existing Gulden, with the older banknotes ceasing to be legal tender at the turn of the century in 1900. The new currency was stable until the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, when the government tried to offset spending by issuing war bonds and printing more currency, leading to a sharp inflation during the war years. In this capacity, the Krone would add to the wartime hardships and thus play a part in the collapse of the Empire in 1918.

With the disintegration of the multi-ethnic empire at the end of the Great War, the Krone remained the currency of the various successor states of the Empire, but they soon began to nationalize the currency, no longer honoring notes from other successors, overstamping the notes with their national emblems or names. This did not stop the inflation, which reached a fever pitch in 1922, just as the German Mark was beginning to enter freefall. With the intervention of the League of Nations the currency was stabilized in Austria with the reintroduction of gold to allow the revaluation of the Krone at 14,400 paper Kronen to 1 new Gold Krone. The Krone was entirely replaced with the Schilling in Austria in 1923-1924.

Currencies Replacing the Krone after the fall of Austria-Hungary

• Schilling - Austria

• Pengő - Hungary

• Czechoslovakia - Koruna

• Fiume - Krone (Annexed by Italy and replaced by Italian Lira in 1924)

• Yugoslavia - Dinar

The Budapest Office of the Austro-Hungarian Bank

The 10 Krome Banknote in my collection is a crisp example, clearly displaying its original markings. The face of the note is marked “Die Oesterreichsch-Ungarische Bank Zahlt Gegen Diese Banknoterbei Ihren Hauptanstahlten In Wien und Budapest Sofort Auf Verlangen”, meaning: “The Oesterreichsch-Ungarische Bank shall redeem this banknote at their main offices in Vienna and Budapest immediately on request”.

The note bears the image of a young boy, and the Austrian double-headed eagle on the upper left. It is also notably overstamped by the short-lived German Austria, a state which directly suceeded the Empire before becoming the Austrian Republic in 1919. This stamp is visible on the right hand side of the note, running up and down in red reading “Deutschösterreich”. The reverse is the same basic information, but now in Hungarian, and bearing an older boy and the Hungarian crest and St. Steven’s Crown. The entire note is watermarked with the Roman numeral “X”, meaning ten.