Banco del Perú was one of several private commercial banks chartered in Lima during the early 1870s credit boom, a period of guano-revenue optimism that ended badly. By 1877 the bank was in serious difficulty, and the broader collapse of Peru's private banking sector — accelerated by the War of the Pacific beginning in 1879 — rendered most of these notes worthless within a decade of issue.
César Canevaro came from one of the most prominent Italian-Peruvian merchant families in Lima, deeply involved in both finance and guano trading. His signature here is not ceremonial.
Banco del Perú was one of several private commercial banks chartered in Lima during the early 1870s credit boom, a period of guano-revenue optimism that ended badly. By 1877 the bank was in serious difficulty, and the broader collapse of Peru's private banking sector — accelerated by the War of the Pacific beginning in 1879 — rendered most of these notes worthless within a decade of issue.
César Canevaro came from one of the most prominent Italian-Peruvian merchant families in Lima, deeply involved in both finance and guano trading. His signature here is not ceremonial.