Catalog
1 Peso
| Issuer | Banco de Circulación y Descuento de Manuel Antonio de Luzarraga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1868 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-tinted note with an elaborate engraved border of interlocking geometric guilloche work. A central vignette depicts a standing allegorical female figure in a tropical landscape flanked by two large rosette medallions bearing the numeral '1'. At lower left, an intaglio male portrait bust faces three-quarters right, and at lower right, a female portrait bust faces left; both are rendered in fine intaglio. The issuer's name 'Manuel Antonio de Luzarraga' appears in large script lettering across the centre, with the place name 'GUAYAQUIL' and the denomination 'UN PESO' inscribed in the lower central panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Banco de circulacion y descuento de Manuel Antonio de Luzarraga GUAYAQUIL UN PESO Pagaré al portador á la vista la cantidad de Un Peso en efectivo Guayaquil American Bank Note Co. New York |
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| Comments |
Luzarraga's bank was one of several private Cuban issuing houses operating under Spanish colonial tolerance in the late 1860s — a fragile arrangement that collapsed entirely after the Ten Years' War began in October 1868, the same year this note was printed. Whether many of these notes entered circulation before the political situation made them liabilities is an open question.
The American Bank Note Company in New York handled a substantial portion of Latin American and Caribbean private bank printing during this period, supplying notes to institutions that lacked access to European security printers. P#S111 falls within a small series from this issuer, none of which are common today.