bavarikon4UPaper money in Spain
The Kingdom of Spain existed until 1931 with one small interruption. In 1873, the First Spanish Republic was created, but was abolished just 23 months later. The Second Spanish Republic was founded in 1931. It ended in 1936 with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, which was followed in 1939 by the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1892-1975). After Franco's death in 1975, Spain became a parliamentary monarchy.
The history of paper money in Spain began during the time of the Kingdom of Spain. The Spanish King Charles III (reigned 1759-1788) ordered the issue of treasury bills to help finance the war against Great Britain. The treasury bills were accepted for payment by all the treasuries. In a royal decree dated 1780, it was also stipulated that traders were required to accept these as well.
The issuance of government treasury bills indirectly led to the creation of a Central Bank of Spain. Firstly, a bank was needed to redeem the government bond. In 1782, the "Banco Nacional de San Carlos" was founded, which also issued banknotes itself. It was dissolved in 1829 and transferred to a new bank, the "Banco Español de San Fernando". The latter now acted as a central bank and issued banknotes. The creation of a second institution, the "Banco de Isabell II", in 1844 led to some competition between the two, which ended in both banks merging in 1847. In 1856, it was renamed "Banco de España" and is still Spain's central bank today.
In addition to the "Banco de España", there were initially other banks that had the right to issue banknotes. The exclusive right to issue banknotes was granted to the "Banco de España" by decree in 1874 and the regional central banks were merged into it. Some years earlier, in 1868, the peseta had already been designated as the new currency. This replaced the reales and the escudo which were the previous currency units in Spain.
The political upheavals of the interwar period are also reflected in the history of paper money. After the proclamation of the founding of the Republic, provisional banknotes came into circulation on which the portrait of King Alfonso XIII (reigned 1886-1931) were stamped over. The portraits of Spanish monarchs that had been customary up to that point were subsequently completely abolished as motifs on banknotes. During the Civil War, instead of Madrid, the banknotes showed the city of Burgos as the issuing location, where General Francisco Franco had his base.
>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Paper money in Europe" of the Giesecke+Devrient Stiftung Geldscheinsammlung (Giesecke+Devrient foundation: collections of bank notes).