5 Pesetas Tarancón

Tarancón is a modest Castilian town in Cuenca province, and like hundreds of Spanish municipalities in the summer of 1936, it responded to the acute coin shortage that followed the outbreak of the Civil War by issuing its own emergency paper money. The Republican government had lost control of the metal supply, small change vanished from circulation almost immediately, and local ayuntamientos filled the void with whatever printing resources were at hand. Here, that meant the local print shop of Ramírez — a stationer and printer with no particular connection to banknote production.

The only security measure was an official municipal stamp, applied by hand. Acceptance depended entirely on local trust.