1 Sol

The Banco Nacional del Perú was established in 1872 with backing from a consortium of private investors, and its note issue coincided almost exactly with Peru's deepening fiscal crisis — the guano boom was collapsing, foreign debt was spiraling, and the government was increasingly leaning on private banks to backstage state finances. The ABNC contract for this series reflected a broader regional pattern: Peruvian institutions routinely turned to New York engravers rather than European firms during this period, partly for cost and partly for faster turnaround.

The bank itself survived less than a decade before the War of the Pacific and the Chilean occupation of Lima effectively ended its operations.