1236 | Spanish Banknotes

Automatically generated translation

Letter from Cartavalori. December 9, 1971. Interesting historical document of the relationship between the Bank of Spain and Cartevalori, very possibly it should be included within the context by which the Bank of Spain in the seventies of the last century drew up the first banknote catalogs and which are the basis of the commercial catalogs used today.

This letter was sent by the management of Calcografia & Cartevalori to the Bank of Spain on December 9, 1971, towards the final days of the Italian printing company before being absorbed by Metrotipo. It refers to a communication from just a couple of weeks before, in which the Bank of Spain would have requested on behalf of Jorge Alentorn Vilá copies of archives, most likely for the preparation of the "Catalogue of Spanish paper money", which it published in 1974 together with Florián Ruiz Vélez-Frías.

References are made in the letter to copies of the C&C archive of all the obverses of the 1940 issue, the reverses of 500 and 1000 Pesetas of the same issue, as well as the obverse and reverse of 1000 Pesetas of July 18, 1937 and the reverse of 50 Pesetas of that issue.

Likewise, a “C&C” specimen is referenced, which is undoubtedly the 20 Pesetas specimen that is included in this sale.

Copies of obverse and reverse proofs similar to those cited are known, although it is not possible for us to discern which specific copies were supplied in this letter by C&C.

Like any copy of Bank of Spain memorabilia, this communication is really interesting, and it is a demonstration of what information was contained in the file of the Italian printing press and of the progress at the level of engraving that they achieved in the failed issue of 1937, as well as the first steps taken for the preparation of the commercial catalogs that we know today.

We thank Jose Antonio Castellanos Vargas for his collaboration in the historical contextualization of this historic piece of Spanish notaphilia.