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| Issuer | República de Chile (Emisión Fiscal) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Peso |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black and blue letterpress on violet paper, reused stock from Banco de D.Matte, Mac Clure y Cía (P#S283). The face carries a hay-gathering vignette at left, a central male figure, and a ships vignette at right. Two round fiscal validation stamps of types I and III are applied over the original bank note design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Vale al portador á la vista por Un peso moneda corriente Santiago. BANCO DE MATTE.MAC-CLURE I Ca. UN PESO Stbre 14 del 98. (Translation: Worth to bearer at sight for One peso in currency. Bank of D.Matte, Mac Clure & Co. One Peso September 14, 1898.) |
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| Comments |
Chile's Emisión Fiscal series emerged from the 1878 forced inconvertibility law, which suspended the gold standard and authorized the state to guarantee private banknote issues — a stopgap that dragged on for two decades. By the late 1890s, the government was overprinting surviving stocks of private bank paper rather than commissioning new printings, which is precisely what produced this note: a fiscal overprint applied to existing Banco de D. Matte, Mac Clure y Cia stock, converting a private obligation into a government-guaranteed instrument.
The underlying bank had already ceased independent operation before the overprint was applied. Surviving examples often show the tension between the original engraving quality and the cruder overprint registration.