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20 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco Caracas, Compañía Anónima |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1928 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO CARACAS COMPAÑIA ANONIMA CAPITAL Bs. 6.000.000 VEINTE BOLIVARES A LA PRESENTACION DE ESTE BILLETE Caracas, de 19 DIRECTOR GERENTE The Homer Lee Bank Note Co. New York |
| Reverse description | Monochrome green reverse with a large central allegorical vignette enclosed within a circular guilloche ring bearing the inscriptions BANCO CARACAS COMPAÑIA ANONIMA and CAPITAL Bs. 6.000.000; the central scene depicts a seated female allegory with attendant figures in a classical landscape setting. Elaborate lathe-work guilloche panels fill the left and right margins, each incorporating the numeral 20 in outlined gothic figures. The overall design is rendered in fine intaglio and letterpress, creating a dense, intricately patterned composition. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Caracas was one of several Venezuelan private banks of issue operating under government concession during the period before the Banco Central de Venezuela's establishment in 1940. Homer Lee Bank Note Co. was a mid-tier New York security printer that handled a number of Latin American commercial bank contracts during the 1920s — competitive with but distinctly below the prestige of American Bank Note Company, whose dominant regional position it occasionally undercut on price.
Private bank notes in Venezuela were progressively squeezed out through the 1930s as the oil boom reshaped the country's monetary architecture. Many Banco Caracas notes were redeemed and destroyed during that consolidation, which accounts for the relative scarcity of surviving examples across the series.