10 Bolivianos

The Banco Nacional de Bolivia was one of several competing private banks of issue operating in Bolivia during the late nineteenth century — a fragmented system that persisted until the Banco de la Nación Boliviana was established in 1911 to consolidate matters. ABNC held the printing contract through this period, supplying engraved plates of the quality Bolivian authorities could not obtain domestically.

The 1894 date places this note squarely in a period of silver price collapse that hit Bolivia's mining-export economy hard, straining the very banks issuing this paper. Convertibility was under pressure, and several Bolivian private banks suspended specie payments within the decade.