Rašín's Currency Reform

JAN 01 1919 · 12:00

Alois Rašín, Minister of Finance, who in February 1919 sealed the borders, stamped the kronen, and built the koruna in a single week. Place: Ministry of Finance, Letenská street · the closed borders Figures: Alois Rašín, Minister of Finance · Vilém Pospíšil, head of the Banking Office · the customs and border guards By February 1919 the Austro-Hungarian crown is dying in real time. Currency is fleeing the rump Austrian state into the new successor countries, who are flooded with paper they cannot back. Rašín, finance minister and one of the Men of October, decides on a sealed operation. The cabinet authorizes him on February 25. At midnight on February 26, the borders close for ten days. Mail, telegraphs, and rail traffic in foreign currency are suspended. Within Czechoslovakia, citizens must present all Austro-Hungarian banknotes to a state office; half the value is exchanged for stamped notes, the other half retained as a forced loan. Stamps are paper adhesive labels, glued to each banknote and franked. Only stamped notes will remain legal tender. The work proceeds in post offices, schoolrooms, and town halls across the country, simultaneously.