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25 Céntimos Barcelona; Unió de Cooperadors
| Issuer | Unió de Cooperadors de Barcelona |
|---|---|
| Year | 1936 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Imprenta Martí, Marí y Cia., Barcelona, Spain |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette with the coat of arms of Barcelona surmounted by a decorative cartouche flanked by two female allegorical figures in traditional Catalan costume, one holding a sheaf and the other a cornucopia of fruit. Denomination numerals '25 cts' appear in circular guilloche panels at left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Two standing female figures in traditional Catalan dress flank the Barcelona municipal shield at centre, set within an ornate symmetrical vignette with scrollwork and fruit garlands. Circular denomination panels at lower left and right carry the numeral '25 cts' in letterpress. |
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| Comments |
The Unió de Cooperadors de Barcelona was a large consumer cooperative with deep roots in the Catalan workers' movement. When the Spanish Republic's monetary system fragmented in the summer of 1936 following the Nationalist uprising, small change vanished almost immediately from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply unavailable. Hundreds of Catalan municipalities, cooperatives, trade unions, and businesses filled the vacuum by printing their own fractional notes, a phenomenon the Catalans called "moneda de necessitat."
This 25 céntimos piece is part of that emergency wave. Imprenta Martí, Marí y Cia. was a Barcelona commercial printer, not a security press, which is exactly what you'd expect from a cooperative issuing scrip under wartime conditions rather than deliberate monetary policy.