Catalog
100 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Habana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1883 (1872-1887) |
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| Value | 100 Pesos |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black, green, and blue, the note carries a central allegorical vignette of a crowned female figure representing Havana, attired in a robe and adorned with earrings and necklace. The denomination numeral "100" appears at the corners within guilloche cartouches, and the text block bears the issuing bank's name and payment obligation in Spanish letterpress. The overall layout follows the formal engraved banknote style typical of Bradbury Wilkinson issues of the 1870s–1880s. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, showing only the plain paper stock with show-through of the obverse design visible under raking light. No text, vignette, or decorative elements were applied to this side. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de la Habana occupied an unusual position in Cuban financial history — it was the only bank of issue permitted to operate in colonial Cuba during most of the late nineteenth century, a monopoly granted by Madrid that made its notes effectively the only paper currency available on the island. The 1872 authorization for this series came at a particularly fraught moment, with the Ten Years' War still grinding through the eastern provinces and confidence in colonial institutions severely strained.
Bradbury Wilkinson engraved and printed the full series in London, a common arrangement for Spanish colonial currency where security printing infrastructure in the colonies was absent. Notes of this denomination are infrequently encountered, likely reflecting both the purchasing power of 100 pesos at the time and the financial disruptions of the 1880s that preceded the bank's eventual collapse in 1898.