100 Korun

This note dates to the first weeks of Czechoslovak monetary independence. When the new state separated its currency from the Austro-Hungarian crown in late February and early March 1919, it did so by the unglamorous method of stamping existing Austro-Hungarian banknotes with rectangular perforated stamps — but the P#4 series represents the parallel effort to produce purpose-made Czechoslovak paper from scratch. The printing was handled by the American Bank Note Company in New York, commissioned in 1918 before the republic was even formally proclaimed.

ABNC's involvement was arranged largely through Eduard Beneš and the Czechoslovak National Council in Washington. Shipments arrived under difficult postwar logistics.