Catalog
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| Issuer | Banco Hipotecario |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO HIPOTECARIO Bogotá 1º de Octubre de 1881 SERIE V Pagadal portador CIEN PESOS a la vista en moneda corriente EL GERENTE EL PRESIDENTE DEL CONSEJO No. |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue, the reverse is dominated by intricate lathe-work guilloche patterns filling the entire field. The bank name is inscribed across the upper and lower registers, with the denomination numeral 100 in large figures at left and right flanking a central panel bearing a signature line. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Hipotecario was a mortgage bank, not a central or commercial bank, and its circulating notes were backed by real estate liens rather than specie reserves — an arrangement that made them structurally different from most Latin American paper currency of the period and considerably more vulnerable during property market contractions. Argentina's 1880s saw a wave of such institution-backed emissions, many of which ended badly when the Baring Crisis of 1890 collapsed the property and credit markets simultaneously.
The American Bank Note Company held a near-monopoly on high-quality security printing for South American issuers at this date. Whether this particular emission ever circulated widely is unclear; Banco Hipotecario notes from this series are genuinely scarce in any condition.