Catalog & market information for bank notes issued by State Bank of the Riff

These notes were produced by Captain Charles Alfred Paroy Gardiner, known as “Percy,” a British arms smuggler and confidant of Abdel Krim, emir of the Rif Republic. The former managing director of the Gardiner Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. of Poole, in Dorset, England, by 1923 he was styling himself the Minister Plenipotentiary for the Government of the Riff. At the same time, negotiating for mining concessions in the Rif Republic, he saw an opportunity to raise money through the creation of a central bank, the State Bank of the Riff (SBR), and to this end prepared a banknote issue. Note that the name of the bank has the republic spelled as Riff, rather than Rif, a spelling used by Gardiner on other occasions. Although delivered to the Rif Republic, the notes were apparently unissued. Some were taken as souvenirs by Spanish military personnel after the fall of the republic in 1926. Both notes in this series carry the name of the issuer in Arabic and English, and the denomination in Arabic, English, and French. The date appears in Gregorian form only. They carry two crescent moon and star motifs, used on the flag of the Rif Republic, as well as two gun-wielding tribesmen on horseback. They are notable in being tri-denominational in Rif riffans, British pence, and French francs d’or.