Catalog
1 Peso Fuerte Caja de Conversión
| Issuer | Caja de Conversión del Paraguay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peso (1856-1944) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Black on green underprint. A central vignette portrays a woman wearing a straw hat, flanked by allegorical figures on either side. The serial number appears at upper right on variety P#106a or at bottom center on variety P#106b. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | REPÚBLICA DEL PARAGUAY LA NACION RECONOCE ESTE BILLETE POR UN PESO FUERTE QUE PAGARÁ CONFORME Á LA LEY DE 14 DE JULIO DE 1903. (Translation: Republic of Paraguay The Nation recognizes this note for One Peso Fuerte That will pay according to the Law of July 14th., 1903.) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Caja de Conversión was established by Paraguay in 1899 specifically to stabilize a currency that had collapsed catastrophically during the 1890s financial crisis — the peso fuerte had by then been effectively replaced in daily transactions by the peso corriente at wildly inflated exchange rates. These notes were the conversion agency's attempt to anchor a new monetary baseline, backed in theory by metallic reserves that were, in practice, never fully adequate.
ABNC printed the series with their characteristic security engraving standards. Paraguay was a small and economically precarious client for the New York firm, and the 1903 issue was one of several Latin American emergency stabilization contracts the company handled in the same period.