1 Peso Tesoro Nacional

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.