Catalog
1,25 Peso Fuerte
| Issuer | Banco del Paraguay y Río de La Plata |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | At the lower left, an intaglio portrait of Jacinto Urarte, Ministro de Hacienda, is rendered in a formal bust style, captioned with his name and title below. The bank title 'del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata' runs diagonally across the centre in bold ornate script, above the denomination text 'pagará al portador a la vista UN PESO Y 25 CENTAVOS FUERTES en moneda de oro o plata sellada de curso legal', with the date 'Asunción, Diciembre 20 de 1889' and two manuscript signatures. A guilloche vignette of the national arms occupies the lower right, and a serial number appears at the lower left. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANCO LEY DE 25 DE JUNIO 1889 del Paraguay y Rio de la Plata pagará al portador a la vista UN PESO Y 25 CENTAVOS FUERTES en moneda de oro o plata sellada de curso legal Series A JACINTO URARTE MINISTRO DE HACIENDA Asunción, Diciembre 20 de 1889 Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco Buenos Aires |
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| Comments |
The Banco del Paraguay y Río de La Plata was a private commercial bank chartered in Buenos Aires with operations extending into Paraguay — a binational arrangement that was already commercially awkward by the late 1880s. The Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco, the Buenos Aires-based security printer behind this note, produced the bulk of River Plate currency during this period and held something close to a regional monopoly on the work.
The 1.25 peso fuerte denomination is the oddity here. Fractional values of this kind were typically driven by coin shortages, where small-denomination notes substituted for silver pieces that had been hoarded or exported.