10 Centavos Compañia de Obras Públicas y Fomento del Perú

The Compañia de Obras Públicas y Fomento del Perú was a foreign-financed public works concession operating during Peru's guano-boom years, and its fractional notes — including this 10 centavos — were issued because the Peruvian government had effectively run out of small-denomination coin. The National Bank Note Company, one of the leading American security printers of the period, produced the series from its New York facilities.

The timing is everything here. Within two years of this note's issue, Peru was in sovereign default, the guano revenues had collapsed, and the company itself was absorbed into the wreckage of the 1876 financial crisis.