HERITAGE: SPANISH CIVIL WAR CURRENCY

The coup d'état which sparked the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 was followed by widespread violence between the Republicans and Nationalists. By 1938, Spain was two years into a civil war that had completely split the country. By the height of the conflict, the opposing Nationalists and Republicans both produced paper money in the territories they controlled.

Spain Banco de Espana 50 Pesetas 1.7.1874

Barcelona, the capital of autonomous Catalonia, had already shown a strong pro-Republican sentiment since the restoration of the monarchy in 1874, and was under Republican control in 1938. Fearing for the security of Madrid, the government of the Second Spanish Republic relocated its financial administration to Barcelona, and the Banco de España designed banknotes with Barcelona as the issuing branch by way of an additional precaution.

The Republican issues for Barcelona are some of the most beautiful designs for the period and seem more of a continuation of the previous styles and motifs, displaying the familiar and detailed engraving of Thomas de la Rue. They are unlike other distinctive regional issues: plainer issues, printed in haste in other Republican regions; the artistic Bilbao issues, which appear almost Tubist or Léger-esque in their curved and stylised designs; the Nationalist regional issues, which were printed in either Germany or Italy, and are very reminiscent of German paper money.

Spain Banco de Espana, Bilbao 25; 50; 100 Pesetas 1.1.1937 Pick S563; S564; S565

Though the three 1938 Barcelona designs were never issued, a small number have survived as Proofs, Specimens or Colour Trial Specimens. All designs are scarce as a result. The 100 Pesetas (Pick 90) is, perhaps, the most intriguing. It features the Dama de Elche, a statue over two thousand years old, and we are fortunate enough to be offering this design for the first time in five years, in our October 14-15 World Paper Money Signature Auction.

Spain Banco de Espana 100 Pesetas 11.3.1938

The Dama de Elche, or 'Lady of Elche', was excavated in 1897 in La Alcudia, the modern site of the ancient city of Ilici, in Alicante, Spain. The Lady of Elche was only named so by the French, as she was sold to the Louvre quickly after her discovery. The inhabitants of Elche originally named her Reina Mora, linking her to the Muslim Maghrebis who once ruled the Iberian Peninsula.

Through her lifetime, the bust has been witness to huge changes in her homeland, but also the subject of debate in her own right. In 1941, she was returned to Spain as part of a larger repatriation of artistic works. She has also been accused of being a forgery, though this theory has subsequently been debunked. Separately, research has confirmed fragments of cremated human remains found inside the statue, pointing to possible use as a cinerary urn-though we still do not know who the statue represents, or who was buried within it.

The 1930s were a devastating and violent period for Spain. Rather than a Republican symbol, or even the vignettes of industry and labour we see in the stylistic Bilbao notes, what is chosen for this banknote is a statue which, at the time of the note's production, was in fact residing in France. Even in absentia, the Lady of Elche represented a Spanish identity which, in 1938, was being brutally fought over. She reappeared on the 1948 1 Peseta, depicted again in a three-note series. The Lady of Elche represents much more than just a modern Spain: she is a pre-Roman Iberian burial, a work of European art protected from war, and a figure whose identity-Reina Mora to some, Dama de Elche to others-has never been fully settled.

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web