2 Reales Tesoro Nacional

Paraguay's Tesoro Nacional notes of 1865 were produced under extraordinary wartime pressure — the War of the Triple Alliance had begun that year, and the López government was financing a military campaign against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay simultaneously. Domestic printing was the only option; no foreign contractor could be reached, and the economic blockade made outside supply essentially impossible.

State-printed paper money from landlocked, besieged Asunción is inherently crude by contemporary South American standards. The watermark is one of the few concessions to anti-counterfeiting, remarkable given the circumstances of production.