500.000 Kronen

By the time this note entered circulation, Austria's postwar inflation had already destroyed the prewar krone many times over. The 500,000 Kronen denomination — unthinkable a decade earlier — was itself overtaken within months; the currency collapsed entirely in 1922–23, and the new Schilling was introduced in 1925 at a conversion rate of 10,000 Kronen to 1 Schilling.

Schirnböck was among the finest intaglio engravers of the Vienna school, and the quality of the plate work here sits in stark contrast to the worthlessness of the denomination at issue. Sterrer and Junk were both accomplished Viennese artists — the pairing of serious design talent with a hyperinflationary emergency note is one of the quiet ironies of the series.