Austrian krone inflation notes

Austrian krone inflation notes are paper currency issues produced in Austria following the First World War, spanning the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monetary union and the hyperinflation that preceded the schilling reform. Initial issues emerged on 12 March 1919, when the newly established Republic of Austria stamped circulating Austro-Hungarian Bank paper money with "DEUTSCHÖSTERREICH". Responsibility for the currency initially remained with the Austro-Hungarian Bank until it entered liquidation, after which the newly formed Austrian National Bank (Österreichische Nationalbank) assumed authority on 2 January 1923.

The notes circulated during a period of acute monetary depreciation. Austria's money supply expanded rapidly from 12 billion Kronen to 30 billion Kronen in 1920, reaching approximately 147 billion Kronen by the close of 1921. The depreciation was checked after October 1922 through a League of Nations loan that established a fixed relationship of 14,400 paper Kronen to one gold Krone. The inflation notes remained in use until the schilling reform established a replacement rate of 10,000 Kronen to one schilling in December 1924.

To keep pace with hyperinflation, banknote values escalated dramatically, culminating in the 500,000 Kronen note issued in 1922, which was the highest denomination produced. While earlier Austro-Hungarian notes had typically featured a bilingual format with a German Cisleithanian obverse and a Hungarian reverse, subsequent Austrian issues were adapted for domestic circulation. At the conclusion of the inflationary era, residual paper stocks were incorporated directly into the transition to the schilling; in 1925, 10,000 Krone banknotes were overprinted to function as the initial one-schilling notes of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank.