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50 Céntimos Alcoba

Issuer Consejo Municipal de Alcoba
Year 1937
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Shape Rectangular
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Obverse description An entirely typographical letterpress note printed in dark brown ink on coarse thick card stock, with no vignette, underprint, or decorative elements. The issuer legend 'CONSEJO MUNICIPAL' appears at the top in bold uppercase, with 'ALCOBA' centred beneath it and flanked by horizontal rules; the central field carries the denomination legend 'Vale por 50 céntimos', with the date 'Julio, 1937' and a stamped serial number positioned in the lower portion.
Obverse lettering CONSEJO MUNICIPAL ALCOBA Vale por 50 céntimos Julio, 1937
(Translation: Municipal Council Alcoba Valid for 50 Centimos July, 1937)
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Comments

Alcoba is a small municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha. During the Spanish Civil War, the Republican zone suffered an acute shortage of small-denomination coinage, prompting hundreds of local councils — many of them tiny — to issue their own emergency paper fractional currency. These municipal emergency notes, known collectively as "cartones" or "vales," were produced locally with whatever printing resources were at hand, which is why card stock was a common substrate: it was sturdier than thin paper and easier to source than proper banknote stock.

Catalogued under Gari as 81-A, suggesting at least one variant exists for the series. Alcoba's total wartime issue was almost certainly limited in quantity, and survival rates for small-town Civil War fractionals are erratic — some are surprisingly common, others nearly impossible to locate.

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