Catalog
1 Peso Tesoro Nacional
| Issuer | Tesoro Nacional de la República del Paraguay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | State Print, Asunción, Paraguay |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress printed in black on plain paper. A vignette of a leopard appears at the upper left, with the national coat of arms at the upper centre. The note carries hand-applied manuscript signatures and a hand-written serial number, characteristic of early Paraguayan emergency issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Blank verso, entirely unprinted, bearing extensive manuscript inscriptions in Spanish cursive script covering much of the surface — a notable characteristic of this primitive hand-cut uniface issue, where the unused reverse was repurposed for personal notations. |
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| Comments |
Paraguay's 1856 Peso notes were produced entirely within the country under the government of Carlos Antonio López — a deliberate choice for a state that had maintained near-total economic isolation since the Francia dictatorship. The Tesoro Nacional was not a bank in any conventional sense but a treasury instrument, and these notes functioned as state-issued fiscal paper rather than bank obligations.
Domestic printing on this series means quality was constrained by whatever equipment and engraving skill existed in Asunción at the time — far removed from the security printing infrastructure of London or Paris houses. Crude execution is characteristic of the type, not a sign of damage.