Catalog
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| Issuer | El Banco de Sonora |
|---|---|
| Year | 1898-1911 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico EL BANCO DE SONORA SOCIEDAD ANÓNIMA PAGARÁ Á LA VISTA AL PORTADOR CIEN PESOS EN MONEDA CORRIENTE DE PLATO DEL CUÑO MEXICANO. (Translation: The Bank of Sonora Anonymous Society Will pay on sight to the bearer One Hundred Pesos in current silver coin of Mexican making.) |
| Reverse description | Black intaglio print on a pale green lathe-work underprint covering the entire field. The central design comprises an elaborate oval guilloche medallion bearing the bank name in bold serif lettering, surrounded by densely interlaced engine-turned scrollwork and foliate ornaments. Numeral counters "100" appear in ornate cartouches at both left and right, and the printer's imprint "American Bank Note Co. New York" is inscribed in a small panel below the central medallion. |
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| Comments |
El Banco de Sonora was one of the more solvent regional banks operating under Mexico's 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito, which created a two-tier system of privileged circulation banks. Sonora's institution benefited enormously from American commercial activity along the border — mining capital, cattle trade, and cross-border payrolls kept demand for high-denomination notes real rather than ceremonial.
The Revolutionary period ended it. By 1913–1914, Constitutionalist forces under Plutarco Elías Calles and others effectively suspended the old Porfirian banking structure across the northwest, and Banco de Sonora notes became worthless almost overnight. High-denomination survivors like this one were more often kept as records than spent.