Catalog
1 Peso Plata Boliviana
| Issuer | Otero y Cía., Córdoba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1868 |
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| Currency | Peso (1826-1985) |
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| Obverse description | The face of this private issue bears the issuer's name 'OTERO Y CA.' in bold letterpress at centre, above a cursive promise-to-pay text reading 'A la presentación de este billete pagaremos al portador UN PESO Plata Boliviana ó su equivalente en moneda de ley.' A tower vignette occupies the left panel, while a reclining allegorical female figure with classical attributes fills the right vignette. The denomination numeral '1' appears in large guilloche-framed cartouches at both lower left and upper right, with the place and date 'Córdoba, Enero 1.de 1868' inscribed at top. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | OTERO Y CA. A la presentación de este billete pagaremos al portador UN PESO Plata Boliviana ó su equivalente en moneda de ley. Córdoba, Enero 1.de 1868 No. 038943 1 |
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| Comments |
Otero y Cía. was a private commercial house in Córdoba, not a chartered bank, and their 1868 emission occupied a legal grey zone that was entirely typical of mid-nineteenth century Argentine provincial finance. The national banking framework was still incoherent, and merchant firms routinely filled the gap by issuing circulating notes backed by little more than their commercial reputation.
The denomination in Pesos Plata Boliviana is the detail worth noting. Bolivia's silver peso was the dominant trading currency across the Argentine interior at this period — Córdoba's merchants denominated obligations in it precisely because their customers understood and trusted it over domestic units. The note was essentially priced for the mule-train trade routes running north toward Potosí.