1 Peseta Vilanova de Sau

Vilanova de Sau is a small municipality in the comarca of Osona, Catalonia, whose population today is largely submerged — literally. The reservoir created by the Sau dam in 1962 flooded the original village center, leaving only the bell tower of the Romanesque church of Sant Romà visible above the waterline in dry years. This note predates all of that by two decades, issued during the Spanish Civil War when the Republican government permitted Catalan municipalities to print their own small-denomination emergency currency to address the acute shortage of coin in circulation.

Turró catalogs hundreds of these Catalan wartime locals, but Vilanova de Sau's issues are among the less frequently encountered, reflecting the commune's modest size at the time of issue.