Catalog
20 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1897 |
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| Currency | Pre-Republic (1870-1898) |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on cream paper with a dense guilloche underprint. The central vignette shows the Spanish Royal coat of arms — quartered shield with castles and lions, surmounted by a crown — set within an oval cartouche flanked by the denomination numeral '20' on each side and scrollwork ornaments. The issuer's name 'EL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA ISLA DE CUBA' runs across the upper panel in bold letterpress, with the bearer clause 'A LA PRESENTACION PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR DE ESTE BILLETE' inscribed in two panels below; the date 'HABANA, 15 DE FEBRERO DE 1897' and the series and serial number appear at the lower portion alongside the governor's manuscript signature. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA ISLA DE CUBA A LA PRESENTACION PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR DE ESTE BILLETE VEINTE CENTAVOS EN METÁLICO HABANA, 15 DE FEBRERO DE 1897 SÉRIE I EL GOBERNADOR American Bank Note Co. N.Y. 20 VEINTE CENTAVOS 20 |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba issued this note in 1897, deep into the Cuban War of Independence and the same year the United States was moving toward direct intervention. Spain's colonial banking apparatus was under severe strain — the war had disrupted the sugar economy, Spanish treasury transfers were erratic, and confidence in paper fractional currency had collapsed in many provinces. Small-denomination notes like this one were a practical stopgap against coin hoarding and scarcity.
ABNC's New York shop printed the series while Cuba was actively at war with its issuer's government — an unremarkable commercial arrangement at the time, but a pointed irony given what followed in 1898.