1 Centavo Alpiarça

Portuguese municipal emergency notes of this type — cédulas, as they were known locally — proliferated after 1917 when small-denomination coinage effectively disappeared from circulation, hoarded by a public rattled by wartime inflation and supply disruption. Alpiarça, a small agricultural municipality in the Ribatejo, was among dozens of câmaras that printed their own fractional paper to keep local commerce moving. The Banco de Portugal offered no practical solution at the small-denomination end, so town councils filled the gap themselves.

Most cédulas from minor municipalities like Alpiarça were printed in very limited runs and circulated hard within a tight geographic radius before being redeemed or simply lost.