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1 Peso

Issuer Estados Unidos de Venezuela
Year 1811
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Currency Peso (1811-1812)
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Obverse lettering ESTADOS - UNIDOS DE VENEZUELA.
T. 124.
Hipotecado sobre las Rentas Nacionales de la Confederacion.
Ley del 27 de Agosto de 1811.
Año 1° de la Independencia A.
Un Peso.
VERIFICADOR PENA DE
Reverse description Unprinted plain paper reverse on aged stock, carrying a single manuscript notation in ink at center, consistent with a contemporary endorsement or counter-signature. The surface exhibits natural toning, foxing, and fold lines appropriate to a note of this period and circulation history.
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One of the earliest paper notes issued in the Western Hemisphere by a newly independent republic, this 1 Peso dates to Venezuela's First Republic — a government that lasted less than eighteen months before royalist forces crushed it in 1812. The Sociedad Patriótica, the radical faction that had pushed hardest for independence, also pushed for this paper currency, partly to finance a war the young republic was already losing.

Survivors are extraordinarily rare. The First Republic's collapse was swift and chaotic, and most circulating notes were either destroyed in the disorder or voided by the returning Spanish administration.