25 Céntimos Archs

Archs is a small municipality in the comarca of Garrotxa, Catalonia, and this 25 céntimos note is one of hundreds of hyperlocal emergency issues produced during the Spanish Civil War — specifically from 1936 onward, when the collapse of small-denomination coinage left town councils scrambling to maintain basic commerce. The Junta Administrativa d'Archs, like countless other local bodies across Republican-held territory, issued its own scrip backed by nothing more than local authority and necessity.

At the cardboard end of the paper spectrum, these municipally-produced pieces were never intended to outlast the war. Most didn't.