Catalog
100 Pesos El Banco de Durango
| Issuer | El Banco de Durango |
|---|---|
| Year | 1891-1914 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on yellow underprint with red serial numbers and red seal. At left, a vignette of a combined steam and sailing vessel navigating rough seas; at right, a seated allegorical figure of Justice holds a book, scales, and an olive branch, with a bald eagle perched on a fasces at her feet. The note is framed by fine guilloche borders typical of American Bank Note Company production. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown intaglio print on an intricate guilloche background composed of radiating lathe-work patterns. Three large numeral medallions reading "100" are arranged symmetrically — one at center and one at each side — with ornate counter-denominators interlaced in the flanking medallions. The legends "BANCO DE" and "DURANGO" appear at top and bottom respectively, with the imprint of the American Bank Note Company, New York at the base. A red stamp and a green seal are visible at upper left and upper right. |
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El Banco de Durango was one of the provincial banks licensed under Mexico's 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito, which allowed state-chartered banks to issue their own circulating notes — a decentralized arrangement that held until the Díaz regime collapsed and the post-revolutionary government began consolidating monetary authority. The American Bank Note Company supplied plates for dozens of Latin American issuers during this period, and the Durango series shows the typical ABNC production quality of the era: tight intaglio printing, clean registration.
The series spans a long window — 1891 through 1914 — meaning later issues would have circulated into the chaos of the Mexican Revolution, when banknotes from Porfirian-era institutions were frequently rejected, counterfeited, or burned outright by revolutionary factions who saw them as instruments of the old order.