100 Pesetas

The Banco de España's 1880 series emerged during a period when the bank held a regional rather than fully national monopoly on note issue — the consolidation of that monopoly came only with the 1874 decree, so notes of this type represent some of the earliest output produced under the newly centralized arrangement. The Madrid workshop was still establishing consistent production standards at this point, and printing quality across the series is notably uneven.

Watermarking was the sole mechanical security measure, which made these notes relatively easy targets for skilled counterfeiters. Several documented forgeries of the 1880 100 Pesetas series circulated in Catalonia before the bank introduced additional controls in subsequent issues.