Catalog
10 Pesos
| Issuer | Tesoro de la Isla de Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1891 |
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| Currency | Pre-Republic (1870-1898) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL TESORO DE LA ISLA DE CUBA PAGAREL AL PORTADOR DIEZ PESOS HABANA EL DIRECTOR GRAL DE HACIENDA EL INTERVENTOR GRAL EL GOBERNADOR DEL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA ISLA DE CUBA |
| Reverse description | Printed in green, the reverse centres on a diamond-shaped vignette containing a laureate portrait bust, understood to represent the Spanish sovereign, set against a fine lathe-work underprint. Flanking the central vignette are large numeral '10' counters within foliate cartouches on either side. The legend 'TESORO DE LA ISLA DE CUBA' runs along the top and 'DIEZ PESOS' appears in a panel at the foot, all enclosed within an intricate guilloche border. |
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| Comments |
The Tesoro de la Isla de Cuba issues of 1891 were colonial treasury obligations — Spain issuing paper currency in its own name for a colony increasingly restive under metropolitan rule. By this point Cuba's economy was deeply entangled with U.S. capital despite being nominally Spanish territory, and the peso notes circulated alongside a chaotic mixture of Spanish, local, and foreign instruments.
Bradbury, Wilkinson produced consistently well-engraved colonial currency from their New Malden works, and their intaglio printing held up better in tropical humidity than many contemporary lithographed issues. Seven years after this note was printed, the Spanish-American War ended Spanish authority in Cuba entirely.