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50 Céntimos Alforja
| Issuer | Ajuntament d'Alforja (Municipality of Alforja) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
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| Printer | Imprenta de Ferrando, Reus, Spain |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed in purple ink on cream paper, the obverse opens at upper left with a decorative illuminated initial 'L' set within an ornamental woodcut cartouche, followed by three lines of authorizing text in Catalan. Three manuscript signatures appear below the main legend alongside the place-and-date inscription 'Alforja, 1 Abril 1937'. The denomination 'VALOR 50 c.' is set in bold type within a right-hand panel enclosed by a repeating zigzag border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Letterpress-printed in purple ink, the reverse is divided into three vertical panels by dotted-rule borders. The flanking left and right panels each carry the denomination '50 CTS.' and the inscription 'ALFORJA 1937' with small arrow ornaments and a stylised floral geometric vignette. The wide central panel presents a dot-screen underprint over which 'AJUNTAMENT D'ALFORJA' appears in large bold capitals, with a handwritten serial number above; the printer's imprint 'IMPRENTA DE FERRANDO. - REUS.' runs along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Alforja is a small village in the Camp de Tarragona, and like hundreds of Catalan and Aragonese municipalities during the Civil War, it issued its own fractional paper money after the República's metal coinage essentially vanished from circulation in 1936–37. The Generalitat de Catalunya had authorized local emergency issues, but oversight was loose — quality, design, and denominations varied wildly from one town to the next.
Imprenta de Ferrando in Reus produced notes for several nearby municipalities during this period, which gives Turró-catalogued pieces from this cluster a detectable family resemblance in typography and layout. The 50 céntimos denomination was the workhorse of these local issues, intended for daily market transactions in villages where nobody was making change.