25 Céntimos Santa Elena

Santa Elena is a small municipality in the province of Jaén, Andalusia, and like hundreds of Spanish towns it issued its own emergency fractional paper during the Civil War after metallic coinage vanished from circulation almost immediately following the July 1936 uprising. These municipal notes — technically vales or billetes de necesidad — were produced locally, often on whatever paper and printing equipment was available, which is why the quality varies so dramatically even within a single series.

The Consejo Municipal designation reflects the Republican administrative structure that replaced the pre-war ayuntamientos in loyalist-held territory. Santa Elena's 25 céntimos is among the more obscure provincial issues; surviving examples are rarely encountered outside specialist Iberian collections.