79 | Spanish Banknotes

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1 Peseta. April 30, 1938. Series A. (Edifil 2023: 428A). AFRICA surcharge, in red. Extremely rare, it retains all its original finish, matching the one photographed in the Edifil catalogue and the one auctioned at the Caja Madrid Auction. Uncirculated-.

The differentiation of currency in circulation in certain territories of a country is a mechanism originally devised to prevent capital flight and maintain sufficient currency in that region. A simple mechanism for accomplishing this task is the use of stamps, either wet or dry. A Ministerial Order of April 22, 1939, called for the stamping of the word "AFRICA" on the 1938 Francoist issues, theoretically justified by preventing smuggling in the Protectorate of Morocco, estimated at approximately 300 million pesetas. Only these could circulate in the region, preventing their illegal entry into the rest of Spanish territory. The idea for this project came from Juan Beigbeder Atienza, then Spain's High Commissioner in Morocco.

There were never any official regulations on the matter, only two proposals from the Ministry of Finance, and they were never put into circulation for fear of the peseta's falling value in the Tangier region. Some dies were engraved with the stamp, and a diagonal typographical imprint was applied to the obverse of a series of banknotes. It is unclear whether this was simply a sample series or whether millions of pesetas were actually stamped, as the surviving banknotes are minimal.

There are also forgeries of these stamps made using wet stamp pads in modern times. The original plates, as mentioned for letterpress printing, feature a subtle pattern inside each letter precisely to make forgery difficult; modern stamp pads cannot reproduce this.

Needless to say, these authentic banknotes are extraordinarily rare, if not unique.