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1/2 Real Plata Boliviana
| Issuer | Banco del Comercio, Gualeguay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869 |
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| Currency | Real (1826-1881) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse presents a central vignette at left of a standing female allegorical figure, with the large fractional numeral 1/2 to its right. The bank name EL BANCO DEL COMERCIO appears in an arc at upper centre, with the serial number below it, and the promise text reading Pagará a la vista CUATRO REALES plata Boliviana al portador de OCHO de estos billetes inscribed in the central field. The date GUALEGUAY 1° DE JULIO 1869 is printed along the lower margin, with MEDIO REAL repeated in the upper and lower left panels within a guilloche border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | MEDIO REAL EL BANCO DEL COMERCIO N° 050697 Pagará a la vista CUATRO REALES plata Boliviana al portador de OCHO de estos billetes GUALEGUAY 1° DE JULIO 1869 BANCO DEL COMERCIO |
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| Comments |
Banco del Comercio was one of the provincial free-banking era institutions operating in Entre Ríos, Argentina, during the brief window between the fall of Urquiza and the national banking reforms that would effectively kill off provincial note issuance by the early 1870s. Gualeguay, a river port town on the Gualeguay River, supported enough commercial activity to sustain a local bank, but these fractional real notes were almost certainly issued to solve a chronic small-change shortage rather than to fund any serious lending operation.
The reales plata boliviana denomination is telling — Bolivian silver coinage was still in practical circulation across the Río de la Plata region at this date, and denominating paper in it was a shorthand for convertibility that local traders would recognize instantly.