Catalog
20 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco de Maracaibo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on a light ochre-tinted ground. The left vignette presents a tall-masted sailing ship at sea, while the central vignette shows a seated allegorical female figure resting against architectural elements with a harbor scene behind her, flanked by the numeral 20 on both sides. To the right, an oval vignette bears the Venezuelan national coat of arms. The upper portion carries the issuer's title BANCO DE MARACAIBO / COMPAÑIA ANÓNIMA in bold letterpress, with a capital statement of 800,000 Bolívares; the lower portion bears the promise-to-pay legend and signature lines for the Gerente and Presidente de la Asamblea Delegataria. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE MARACAIBO COMPAÑIA ANÓNIMA CAPITAL 800.000 BOLÍVARES VEINTE BOLÍVARES VALE que se pagarán al portador en Maracaibo á su presentación GERENTE PRESIDENTE DE LA ASAMBLEA DELEGATARIA 20 |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Maracaibo was a regional bank operating under Venezuela's free banking period, when multiple state-chartered institutions held the legal authority to issue their own currency. That arrangement ended with the rise of centralized banking in the early twentieth century, making notes from this issuer relics of a short-lived pluralist monetary order. The American Bank Note Company's New York workshops produced paper for dozens of Latin American clients simultaneously during this decade, and the quality of engraving was frequently a selling point used to deter forgery in markets where institutional trust was fragile.
Pick 200 is scarce in any condition — Maracaibo-issued paper had limited geographic reach and never circulated widely outside northwestern Venezuela.