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1 Peseta Urrea de Gaén
| Issuer | Consejo Municipal de Urrea de Gaén |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | Typeset letterpress note printed in black ink on plain paper, with the coat of arms of the Spanish Republic placed at the upper left corner. The text is arranged in a certificate-style layout, with the issuing authority, denomination, and legal tender declaration set out in several lines across the face of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Otherwise plain reverse with a circular violet rubber validation stamp applied by hand at centre, enclosing the municipal coat of arms vignette and carrying the legend of the Consejo Municipal de Urrea de Gaén (Teruel) around the inner ring. This hand-applied stamp served as the sole authentication device, as noted in the obverse legend. |
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| Comments |
Urrea de Gaén is a small municipality in the Teruel province of Aragon, and like hundreds of similarly tiny Spanish towns during the Civil War, its local council issued emergency fractional currency in 1937 to combat the near-total disappearance of metallic coinage from circulation. The Republican government had lost control of the coin supply; silver and copper were being hoarded or melted, and small transactions became genuinely impossible without local substitutes.
The validation stamp was the only anti-counterfeiting measure available to a village council with no access to specialist printers. Teruel province changed hands violently in late 1937 and early 1938, and most municipal notes from the region were rendered worthless almost immediately after issue.