Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Céntimos '2 Rals' Besora
| Issuer | Ajuntament de Santa Maria de Besora (Municipality of Santa Maria de Besora) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 52 × 36 mm |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Plain card stock bearing a violet circular municipal stamp with the face value inscription in two lines across the centre. A bold red handwritten signature is applied diagonally over the stamp impression, serving as a validation mark. The note is entirely hand-authenticated, with no printed vignette or decorative underprint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Otherwise blank reverse with a black oval municipal stamp applied at centre, bearing the issuing authority's name around the perimeter and a decorative device in the field. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Santa Maria de Besora is a tiny municipality in the Osona comarca of Catalonia, and this 50 céntimos emergency piece is among the smallest-format locally issued notes from the Spanish Civil War period. Virtually every Catalan municipality of any size — and many with almost none — issued their own paper money between 1936 and 1939 when coinage disappeared from circulation almost entirely, hoarded or melted down. The popular nickname "2 Rals" reflects the old Spanish real, where two reales equalled 25 céntimos, making the folk arithmetic here slightly off — though such informal labeling was common and tells you more about how rural communities thought about value than any official denomination did.
Turró's catalog remains the definitive reference for these Catalan municipal emissions, and the 433 listing for Besora indicates a very limited local print run on card stock rather than proper banknote paper.