5 Pesetas Barcelona; Unió de Cooperadors; red

The Unió de Cooperadors de Barcelona was a consumer cooperative federation with deep roots in the Catalan labor movement. During the Civil War, the collapse of small-denomination coinage — hoarded or melted almost immediately after July 1936 — forced hundreds of municipalities, businesses, and cooperatives across Republican Spain to print their own fractional currency. The cooperative's notes were functionally restricted to members and affiliated outlets, functioning less like circulating money and more like scrip redeemable within a closed commercial network.

Printed locally by Imprenta Martí, Marí y Cia., the production quality reflects wartime constraints — offset lithography rather than intaglio, with no security features beyond the issuer's own authority.