1 Peseta Alella

Alella is a small wine-producing municipality north of Barcelona, and like hundreds of Catalan towns it resorted to issuing its own paper money during the early months of the Civil War — the summer and autumn of 1936 saw a near-total collapse of small-denomination coinage across Republican-held Spain, hoarded by a nervous public the moment fighting began. These local emissions, collectively known as moneda local or moneda de necessitat, were authorized under emergency decree and backed by nothing beyond municipal credit.

Imprenta Avant was one of several Barcelona print shops producing these issues at volume. The double Pons surnames on this note — two signatories, no apparent relation confirmed — is a detail worth noting for authentication purposes, as forged or fantasy municipals from this period occasionally misattribute or conflate signatory names.