Catalog
1 Peso
| Issuer | Estados Unidos de Venezuela |
|---|---|
| Year | 1811 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Small-format note with the heading ESTADOS-UNIDOS DE VENEZUELA at top, below which appear the series and folio references T. and F. A large central circular vignette bears the Venezuelan coat of arms with a palm tree, ships, and cornucopia, surrounded by a circular legend reading PENA DE MUERTE AL FALSIFICADOR. The denomination UN PESO is printed in the lower left quadrant, with a handwritten serial number to the right, and a vertical letterpress text along the left margin reading El potecado sobre las Rentas Nacionales de la Confederacion. A further vertical inscription along the right margin reads Ley del 27 de Agosto de 1811, Año 1o. de la Independencia. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | No reverse image is available for this note; the reverse design is not documented in the available catalog sources for this issue. |
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| Comments |
Venezuela's 1811 patriot government issued this note under extraordinary pressure — the First Republic was less than a year old, fighting both royalist forces and the catastrophic Caracas earthquake of March 1812 that would soon be exploited by the Church as divine punishment for rebellion. Paper money was deeply mistrusted by a population accustomed to Spanish colonial coinage, and these early republican emissions were backed by nothing more durable than political will.
Printed locally rather than abroad, production quality was rudimentary. The First Republic collapsed by July 1812, and most of this emission would have been repudiated, destroyed, or simply abandoned — which accounts for extreme scarcity today.