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50 Pesetas Banco de España - Bilbao
| Issuer | Banco de España, Bilbao |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 50 EL BANCO DE ESPAÑA / BILBAO El Banco de España Pagará al portador CINCUENTA pesetas BILBAO 1 de Enero de 1937 (Translation: The Bank of Spain / Bilbao The Bank of Spain Will pay the bearer Fifty Pesetas Bilbao January 1, 1937) |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in purple and ochre, with an elaborate geometric guilloche border incorporating stylised foliate ornaments at the corners and midpoints. To the left, a large central vignette in an expressionist-industrial style presents a group of male workers, rendered in a bold modernist manner, with factory machinery and smokestacks visible in the background. To the right, a tall vertical panel carries an interlaced geometric device above the large numeral '50', with the inscription 'BANCO DE ESPAÑA' below in two lines. |
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| Comments |
Bilbao's Republican currency during the Spanish Civil War had a short window of relevance. The city fell to Nationalist forces in June 1937, and the notes issued by the Basque regional government's banking apparatus — operating under the Banco de España name but functionally autonomous — became worthless almost immediately. This series was printed locally by Arte y Editorial Vasca, an arrangement born of necessity rather than preference, as access to Spain's conventional printing infrastructure had been severed by the war.
The brevity of circulation means heavily used examples are actually harder to explain than uncirculated ones.