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50 Céntimos Vilalba dels Arcs
| Issuer | Ajuntament de Vilalba dels Arcs (Municipality of Vilalba dels Arcs) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 50 Centimos (0.50 ESP) |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress-printed on light blue card stock, this utilitarian Civil War-era municipal emergency issue carries the four-barred coat of arms of Catalonia to the left, with all text rendered in black ink in a compact, functional layout. No guilloche underprint, ornamental vignette, or decorative border is present, reflecting the austere production conditions of wartime local currency. The inscriptions state the issuing authority, the denomination of 50 cèntims, and the purpose of facilitating small change. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is entirely unprinted on the same light blue card stock as the obverse, with no text, vignette, serial numbering, or decorative elements of any kind, consistent with the minimal production standards applied to Spanish Civil War municipal emergency issues. |
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| Comments |
Vilalba dels Arcs is a village of a few hundred people in the Terra Alta comarca of Tarragona province, and like dozens of other Catalan municipalities during the Civil War, it printed its own fractional currency when the Republic's coinage effectively vanished from circulation — hoarded, melted, or simply absent. The phenomenon was widespread enough that the Generalitat eventually tried to regulate and then suppress local issues, with limited success.
Imprenta Solé of Tarragona handled a considerable volume of these municipal emergency notes across the region. The thick card stock was a practical choice: it wore better than thin paper in daily market use, where these small-denomination pieces changed hands constantly for bread, oil, and basic goods.