1 Centimo San Carlos de la Rápita

San Carlos de la Rápita, a fishing town in Tarragona province, issued its own cardboard emergency currency during the Spanish Civil War when metal was diverted entirely to the war effort and the Republican central government could not supply sufficient small-denomination coinage to keep local commerce functioning. These fichas, produced by municipal and commercial authorities across Republican-held Catalonia in 1937, were never legal tender beyond the issuing locality — often redeemable only at specific shops or cooperatives.

Cardboard degrades. Survivors in collectible condition are far less common than their original print runs suggest.