20 Centavos

The Banco Nacional del Perú was founded in 1872 with backing from American and Peruvian capital, partly to fund the Dreyfus Brothers guano contract obligations that were straining government finances. This note dates from the bank's first full year of operation — a period when Peru's economy was still flush with guano revenue but already showing the structural weaknesses that would collapse the currency system within a decade.

ABNC's involvement is unsurprising given their dominance in Latin American contracts through this period, with plates produced in New York for a bank that would not survive the War of the Pacific.