Catalog
1 Centavo Serpa
| Issuer | Município de Serpa |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Value | 1 Centavo (0.01 PTE) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1 Centavo CEDULA MUNICIPAL S.A. N.º UM CENTAVO Municipio de SERPA |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, showing plain cream paper with the ghost show-through of the obverse letterpress impression visible in mirror image through the thin stock, confirming the single-sided typographic production of this emergency municipal cédula. |
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| Comments |
Municipal emergency notes from interior Portugal are among the least-documented issues in Iberian notaphily. Serpa, a small town in the Baixo Alentejo, issued its own fractional cédulas during the acute coin shortage that gripped Portugal from roughly 1917 onward — a shortage so severe that municipalities, commercial houses, and even charitable institutions were legally permitted to produce their own temporary paper substitutes for bronze coinage.
The MA# reference places this within the Marques de Almeida cédulas catalogue, the primary authority for Portuguese local issues. Documentation on surviving quantities is thin.