Brown color
Unterschrift: Rudolf Poeschel = Reinhard Kamitz = Ludwig Seiberl
Wasserzeichen: Frame of different circular segments
Paper with interrupted security thread
Vorderseite: Designer of the Semmering Railway Carl Ritter von Ghega (1802-1860)
Rückseite: Semmering - mountain pass in the Eastern Northern Limestone Alps connecting Lower Austria and Styria
Green patches on front
In 1969, Austrian Media reported that 20 Schilling notes with green patches did appear in circulation. People believed them to be counterfeits.
This assumption, however, was rejected by Oesterreichische Nationalbank. In fact it is a change of color due to chemical reactions. For the printing six different brown shades were used with different chemical characteristics.
A certain quantity of notes may have been exposed to a certain external influence, be it by chance or intentionally. This exposure caused a chemical reaction of several brown shades, changing the color from brown to green.
A probable explanation, for instance, is that someone delivered a garment to a chemical laundry and the bills were forgotton to be removed from its pockets prior the cleaning process.
