5 Riffans

The State Bank of the Riff was established by Abd el-Krim al-Khattabi as part of his broader project to run the Republic of the Rif as a functioning sovereign state, complete with a postal system, a mining administration, and its own currency. The bank itself was short-lived — the Republic lasted only from 1921 to 1926, when combined French and Spanish military pressure, including the deployment of mustard gas by Spanish forces, finally forced Abd el-Krim's surrender.

Whether these notes circulated in any meaningful volume is genuinely unclear. The Rif had a predominantly tribal economy, and paper currency issued by a central authority was not a natural fit. Most surviving examples are thought to have been preserved as curiosities rather than recovered from actual use.

Pick lists only a handful of types for this issuer, making the series among the rarest of any 20th-century North African emission.