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1 Peseta El Masnou
| Issuer | El Masnou, Municipality of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Imprenta Avant, Barcelona, Spain |
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| Obverse description | The face is framed by an elaborate architectural border in the form of a portico, with classical columns flanking the central text panel and upper and lower registers filled with fruit garlands, floral motifs, and cornucopias in a decorative letterpress style. The central text block carries the denomination and legal tender inscription in Catalan. The overall composition reflects the vernacular print aesthetic typical of Spanish Civil War-era municipal emergency issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL MASNOU VAL PER UNA PESSETA QUANTITAT REEMBORSABLE A LA CAIXA MUNICIPAL DE CURS OBLIGATORI PER TOT EL TERME MUNICIPAL DEL MASNOU (Translation: El Masnou Valid for One Peseta Amount refundable to the Municipal savings bank Mandatory course throughout the municipality of El Masnou) |
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| Comments |
El Masnou is a small coastal town north of Barcelona, and like hundreds of Catalan municipalities during the Civil War, it issued its own fractional currency in 1937 after the Republic's small-denomination coins effectively disappeared from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply overwhelmed by wartime disruption. These local notes, collectively known as moneda local or paper moneda, were a genuinely decentralized monetary response, authorized under a Generalitat decree of late 1936 that briefly gave municipalities the right to print their own low-value scrip.
Imprenta Avant in Barcelona handled production for numerous such issues, which is why the printing quality across many Catalan municipal notes of this period is surprisingly consistent despite the chaotic circumstances.