Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Real Plata Boliviana
| Issuer | Banco Argentino, Rosario |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Intaglio-printed in black on white cotton paper, the note is framed by an ornate guilloche border with corner vignettes each bearing the fraction 1/2. The Argentine coat of arms occupies the centre of the upper register, flanked by the bank title EL BANCO ARGENTINO in bold letterpress; below, the promise-to-pay text and large denomination MEDIO REAL are set in a combination of engraved script and letterpress, with a manuscript date line for Rosario and a red letterpress serial number at lower right. The imprint of the American Bank Note Co., New York appears at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO ARGENTINO MEDIO / MEDIO Rosario, 1 de Julio de 1873 Pagará á la vista y al portador MEDIO REAL plata boliviana ó su equivalente en moneda de ley. Serie A American Bank Note Co. New York |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banco Argentino operated out of Rosario during Argentina's brief provincial free-banking period, when individual banks were permitted to issue their own currency before federal consolidation swept most of them out by the late 1870s. This fractional denomination — half a real in Bolivian silver — reflects how thoroughly the older Spanish colonial monetary system still shaped commercial life in the interior provinces well into the republican period. Bolivian silver coinage remained the practical medium of exchange across much of the Argentine northwest and littoral, and bank notes denominated in it were simply more useful to merchants than notes tied to the peso.
ABNC printed the series in New York from engraved plates, as was standard for Argentine provincial issues of the period seeking to project institutional credibility.