Catalog
1 Lempira
| Issuer | República de Honduras |
|---|---|
| Year | 1937 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | Blue note with the Honduran coat of arms in an oval vignette at left, set against a fine guilloche underprint covering the entire field. The central text panel contains the guarantee and customs duty acceptance legend, with the denomination UNA LEMPIRA in a decorative banner below. Three separate registration numbers appear at bottom left, bottom centre, and bottom right, along with three manuscript signature lines for Contador Mayor, Ministro de Hacienda, and Director General de Rentas. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniformly printed in blue on cotton paper, the reverse is dominated by an elaborate lathe-work guilloche pattern of concentric rosettes and interlocking geometric bands filling the entire field, with no central vignette. The issuer's name appears in a ruled panel at top and the note type in a corresponding panel at bottom, both rendered in serif letterpress. The American Bank Note Company imprint is present in small text at the bottom margin. |
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| Comments |
Honduras introduced the lempira as its currency unit in 1931, replacing the peso at par following a period of monetary consolidation driven largely by pressure from American creditors and United Fruit Company banking interests. The American Bank Note Company's involvement was therefore almost overdetermined — U.S. financial influence over Central American issuers during this period routinely channeled printing contracts to New York.
The 1937 date places this note in the early Carías Andino dictatorship, a regime that would hold power until 1948. Financially, those years were characterized by strict austerity and debt management rather than monetary expansion, meaning notes from this series circulated hard and survivors in any condition above heavily worn are not common.