1 Peseta Els Torms

Els Torms is a small municipality in Les Garrigues, Lleida, and this note is a product of the acute small-change shortage that swept Catalonia and the rest of Republican Spain in the summer of 1936. Following the July uprising, hoarding drained coins from circulation almost overnight, and hundreds of Catalan municipalities — including the smallest — were authorized or simply compelled by necessity to issue their own emergency fractional currency. These local emissions are collectively catalogued under the term "moneda local" and number in the thousands of distinct pieces.

The thick card stock was a practical choice: proper banknote paper was not available to a village of a few hundred inhabitants. An official stamp and a handwritten signature were the only authentication mechanisms, both applied by local officials whose identity is now largely unrecoverable.