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50 Céntimos Olvan
| Issuer | Ajuntament d'Olvan (Municipality of Olvan) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peseta (1936-1939) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of ears of wheat before a large industrial factory with smoking chimneys, all enclosed within an ornamental floral frame. Issuer name and denomination inscribed across the note, with the municipal reimbursement clause rendered in Catalan. The overall composition is typical of the letterpress-printed Catalan Civil War emergency issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 50 CTS. VAL AUTORITZAT PER A CIRCULAR DINS AQUEST TERME MUNICIPAL cinquanta cèntims (Translation: 50 Centimos Authorized voucher to circulate within this municipal term Fifty Centimos) |
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| Comments |
Olvan is a tiny municipality in the Berguedà comarca of Catalonia, with a population in the 1930s of only a few hundred. This note exists because of the acute small-change shortage that struck Republican-controlled Spain almost immediately after the July 1936 uprising — the hoarding of metal coinage was so severe that hundreds of Catalan municipalities, trade unions, and cooperatives resorted to printing their own fractional emergency scrip. By 1937, the Generalitat had issued directives attempting to regulate these emissions, but local councils continued issuing anyway.
Imprenta Avant in Barcelona handled a substantial volume of these municipal wartime pieces, and the workmanship is accordingly modest. Turró catalogues this emission as a single denomination, suggesting the council's needs were limited — or that paper and credit to print more simply weren't available.