50 Korun

Slovakia's 1939 declaration of independence — under heavy German pressure — created an immediate need for a distinct currency separate from the dissolving Czechoslovak system. Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig handled the early Slovak issues almost by default, as the new state had no domestic printing infrastructure capable of producing secured banknotes. The relationship reflected the broader political dependency of the Slovak client state on Berlin.

Aurel Kailich, the note's designer, was a Slovak artist whose work appears across several issues of this short-lived series. The watermark is the sole security feature — modest even by wartime standards.