Catalog
5 Riffans
| Issuer | State Bank of the Riff |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The note is printed in olive-green on plain paper with a guilloche border framing the entire design. A mounted horseman vignette appears at the left, with a rearing horse and rider at the right, flanked by crescent and six-pointed star devices in the upper corners. The serial number and date '10.10.23' are handstamped in manuscript within a central rectangular frame, above the Arabic denomination inscription. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is a mirror-image impression of the obverse design, printed in the same olive-green tone, with the guilloche border, crescent and star corner devices, and horseman vignettes all appearing in reverse orientation. The central serial number and date are visible in reverse, consistent with ink show-through from the obverse printing. The overall layout reflects the single-sided printing technique with bleed-through typical of these emergency issues. |
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| Comments |
The State Bank of the Riff was established by Abd el-Krim al-Khattabi as part of his broader project to run the Republic of the Rif as a functioning sovereign state, complete with a postal system, a mining administration, and its own currency. The bank itself was short-lived — the Republic lasted only from 1921 to 1926, when combined French and Spanish military pressure, including the deployment of mustard gas by Spanish forces, finally forced Abd el-Krim's surrender.
Whether these notes circulated in any meaningful volume is genuinely unclear. The Rif had a predominantly tribal economy, and paper currency issued by a central authority was not a natural fit. Most surviving examples are thought to have been preserved as curiosities rather than recovered from actual use.
Pick lists only a handful of types for this issuer, making the series among the rarest of any 20th-century North African emission.