2 Pesetas Benicasim

Benicasim's locally issued paper money from 1937 belongs to the vast ecosystem of Republican municipal emergency currency — "moneda local" — that proliferated across loyalist Spain after the military uprising disrupted normal financial channels. The Banco de España's branch network had effectively collapsed in many areas, and municipalities were authorized, then broadly tolerated, to fill the void themselves. Most of these emissions were purely functional stopgaps, and Benicasim's is no exception.

The square format is unusual enough to note — 45mm each side is among the more compact square emissions in the Valencian series, suggesting the municipality was economizing on paper stock during a period of acute material shortages.