Catalog
100 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco Comercial (later Banco Comercial de Maracaibo) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880 |
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| Value | 100 Bolívares |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in blue and black intaglio on white paper. At left, a classical allegorical vignette shows a seated female figure surrounded by tropical produce and foliage; at right, a second allegorical group with a standing male figure and a seated female figure. The central field carries the bold letterpress legend "YALE POR CIEN BOLIVARES" above the large underprint inscription "CAPITAL B/3.200,000", flanked by the bank's title "Banco Comercial" and "Sociedad Anónima" in ornate script at top center. Denomination numerals "100" appear in each upper corner within guilloche medallions. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Banco Comercial SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA YALE POR CIEN BOLIVARES CAPITAL B/3.200,000 No. CAPITAL 100 |
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| Comments |
The Banco Comercial was one of several private Venezuelan banks authorized to issue currency under the liberal banking legislation of the 1870s, which gave individual state and commercial banks substantial latitude before federal monetary consolidation eventually curtailed those privileges. This note predates the bank's formal rechristening as Banco Comercial de Maracaibo, placing it in the institution's earliest operating years.
American Bank Note Company printed a significant volume of Latin American private bank paper during this period, and Venezuelan commercial notes from this era are genuinely scarce — survival rates were low even by nineteenth-century standards, partly because Maracaibo's humid climate is particularly hostile to paper.