20 | Spanish Banknotes

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25 Pesetas. September 25, 1910. Republic of Spain and signed by Antonio Fáres de Zúñiga. (Edifil 2021: not catalogued). Very strange, the first time we have evidence of this bill. Almost Extremely Fine.

The story of this curious document is that of a Spanish rogue or swindler living in Chile. As can be seen in the imprint on the back, it is supposedly produced by the Imprenta de la Libertad, located on Avenida Colón in Valparaíso (Chile). And what does Chile, the Spanish Republic and this Antonio Fares de Zúñiga who signed the document with a stamp look like? It was simply a scam. Let's carefully examine the specimen.
First of all, the vignettes are made using offset with various inks and with the characteristic dot pattern of a technique widely used in magazines and newspapers. The offset used in the manufacture of banknotes is made with a single ink and without a lattice. But beyond the poor quality of the designs there are more clues that lead us to understand something suspicious. Obviously the date is absurd. Spain at that time was a monarchy and at most it could be a document that served to raise funds and fight for the establishment of a republic. The exclusive recognition of these bills only if they are signed by the author is a relevant fact because it is absurd. No Spanish government has acted like this. In addition, it offers a premium of 25% on the nominal amount in payments to the State. Such an instruction is inconsistent with legal practices in Spain. Yes, shenanigans have been done, but not so directly. But the last straw is the spelling mistakes. Ignoring the strangely Carlist claim that the exchange of the banknotes would financially support (since it seems that until Fernando VII the kings were acceptable to the author; then not), we find the word “abulidos” instead of “abolidos”, “Prin” instead of ”Prim” or “had” instead of “had”. Other times, other spellings, someone may claim, although they are rather talking about the author. The mention of this character as a supposed delegate of some committees is equally hilarious. To make matters worse, we are in a time in which the Bank of Spain has the sole privilege of issuing banknotes and this document is not part of it. And it also threatens that the Republican Government would “ignore” (that is, would not recognize) the value of that bank's notes if they refused to exchange these documents. A joke, come on.
Searching the literature we found that this Antonio Fares de Zúñiga was denounced by a worker at the Universo Printing and Lithography of Valparaíso for having sent five and twenty-five peseta bills to be manufactured in the name of the Spanish government. Spanish diplomats considered it merely a scam. This Fares de Zúñiga ended up arrested during an unauthorized rally, in which we assume he was trying to raise funds for the republican cause. As quoted by the publication we read, in a letter from the Spanish consul in Valparaíso to the Spanish minister in Chile (the ambassador) dated February 23, 1911, “the act itself is perfectly ridiculous, the work of a fool with points and edgings of a scoundrel and a vulgar swindler.”
Thus, the copy that we show is a witness of the Spanish picaresque abroad, a very interesting and unique document in our eyes. Presumably the 5 and 25 peseta “bills” mentioned were seized and destroyed.