Catalog
1000 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Habana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869-1870 |
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| Currency | Pre-Republic (1870-1898) |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black and green, the obverse carries a central harbour vignette of a sailing vessel entering Havana bay before the Morro Castle, flanked by two seated allegorical figures — one holding a cornucopia, the other a staff — with underprint elements including a tobacco plant, palm trees, a sugar mill with smokestacks, and oxen hauling a sugar-cane cart. The denomination and issuing authority appear in bold letterpress within ornate panel borders typical of American Bank Note Company engraving of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1000 EL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA HABANA á la presentación de este billete pagará al portador MIL pesos fuertes en efectivo. Habana, 26 de Enero de 1870. (Translation: The Spanish Bank of Havana Upon presentation of this note, the bearer will be paid One Thousand Pesos Fuertes in cash. Havana, January 26, 1870.) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de la Habana occupied an unusual position: a Spanish colonial institution printing its highest-denomination notes through an American firm in New York, at the very moment Cuba's Ten Years' War was tearing the island apart. The rebellion began in October 1868, and these notes were issued directly into that instability — the 1000 Peso denomination would have moved almost exclusively among merchants and colonial administrators, not ordinary Cubans.
ABNC's involvement was purely commercial; several Latin American and Caribbean issuers used them simultaneously, and the same New York presses were producing notes for governments on both sides of various conflicts without particular scruple.