Catalog
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| Issuer | Ajuntament de Barbens (Municipality of Barbens) |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | L'AJUNTAMENT DE BARBENS PAGARÀ AL PORTADOR 50 CENTIMS (D'ÚS FORÇÓS A BARBENS) (Translation: The City Council of Barbens Will pay the bearer 50 Centimos Mandatory use in Barbens) |
| Reverse description | Plain paper reverse bearing a large oval violet municipal control stamp, partially legible, with a handwritten serial number in ink at the upper right corner. |
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| Comments |
Barbens is a small municipality in the Pla d'Urgell comarca of Catalonia, with a population that barely reached a few hundred during the 1930s. Like hundreds of similarly tiny Catalan and Spanish municipalities, it issued its own emergency paper fractional currency during the Civil War years when Republican-zone coinage effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply gone.
Imprenta Popular in nearby Bellpuig produced notes for several surrounding municipalities, which accounts for the family resemblance collectors often notice across different Turró-catalogued local issues from this part of Lleida province. The 50 céntimos denomination was among the most-needed in daily transactions, and survival rates for these tiny municipally-issued pieces are low — they were used hard and discarded once the crisis passed.