20 Centavos

The Banco Nacional del Perú was established in 1872 with significant backing from private Peruvian and foreign commercial interests, and this 20 Centavos note belongs to the bank's earliest emission. Small-denomination fractional notes of this kind were issued partly to address a chronic shortage of small coin in everyday Peruvian commerce — a problem that plagued most South American economies throughout the nineteenth century.

The American Bank Note Company handled the printing at its New York facilities, as it did for the majority of Peruvian paper issues of the period. The bank itself had a short operational life; financial instability and the approach of the War of the Pacific contributed to its collapse well before the end of the decade.