Catalog
1 Peso
| Issuer | Banco de Guatemala, Sucursal de Quezaltenango |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
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| Value | 1 Peso |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on light paper. At centre, an oval vignette presents a quetzal bird perched on an anchor, flanked symmetrically by two steam locomotives in motion against a landscape; the bank title 'BANCO DE GUATEMALA' is set in large letters across the upper field, with 'SUCURSAL QUEZALTENANGO' inscribed in a banner above. The denomination 'UN PESO' occupies a panel at the lower centre, below which appear the manuscript date and three facsimile signatures over the caption 'DIRECTORES'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red. The face is structured around elaborate guilloche rosette underprints at left and right, each overlaid with the numeral '1'. 'QUEZALTENANGO' appears in a bold panel across the top, preceded above by 'SUCURS.', while 'BANCO DE GUATEMALA' is set in a corresponding panel at the foot. The denomination 'UN PESO' is inscribed in two lines at centre. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Guatemala operated through regional branches, and the Quezaltenango sucursal served the western highland commercial zone — a coffee-rich corridor where private banking activity ran ahead of any central monetary authority. This particular branch issue predates the 1926 establishment of the Banco Central de Guatemala by three decades, placing it squarely in Guatemala's era of competing bank concessions under Liberal-era financial legislation.
The Compañía Internacional de Billetes de Banco was a Buenos Aires-based security printer active across several Latin American markets in the 1890s, making it an unusual choice relative to the North American and European printers more commonly associated with Central American issues of this period.