10 Pesos overprint on P#S334 - Banco Nacional de Chile

The Banco Nacional de Chile was absorbed into the Banco de Chile system following the 1898 currency reorganization that came in the wake of Chile's 1878 monetary crisis and the subsequent paper money law. Rather than printing an entirely new series, the overprint on existing P#S334 stock was the practical solution — cheaper and faster than commissioning fresh plates from the American Bank Note Company, which had already produced the underlying notes in New York.

Overprint survivorship on these is uneven. Notes that circulated heavily in the northern nitrate provinces show the stamp poorly applied, as local handling conditions were hard on paper stock.