Cardboard coin

In the midst of a civil war and with the country divided in two, both zones faced the problem: a shortage of paper money, and especially of the small denomination coins that were used for daily transactions. The result of this shortage was the creation of provisional local currencies. While it is well known that thousands of provisional currencies existed in the Republican zone, brought about by revolution and the fragmentation, there existed different forms of currency in the Francoist zone as well and their use was not limited to the early days of the conflict. The cardboard coin shown here was created Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1937. In the centre of its face is a small fishing boat, testimony to one of the city’s most important economic activities, while the back of the coin contains a seal indicating a value of 40 céntimos. 

The use of this idyllic maritime image hides a rather sinister reality. Sanlúcar was, and is, a seafaring city, and fishing one of its major sources of income. In the years before the war began, a number of organizations, with a total of almost one thousand members, were affiliated with the anarchosyndicalist CNT: the Maritime Awakening Society of Sailors, the Loyalty Society of Fishing and Related Activities, the Naval Mechanics’ Society, and the Awakening Society of Netmakers. In July 1936, Sanlúcar came under rebel control almost immediately, and was quickly followed by the repression of workers and unionists, many of them fishermen. 105 people were killed and many more sentenced to hard labour. Between 1936 and 1945, 1,006 people from across Spain would spend time in the city’s prison.