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20 Centavos
| Issuer | El Banco del Estado |
|---|---|
| Year | 1900 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Centavos |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Large banner title EL BANCO DEL ESTADO in bold letterpress across the upper field, with REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA at top. At left, an intaglio portrait vignette of a uniformed military figure. The denomination VEINTE CENTAVOS appears in a central guilloche panel below SERIE B, with the promise text pagara al portador a la vista above. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Orange-brown typeset reverse with the Colombian national coat of arms vignette at left, inscribed DEPARTAMENTO DEL CAUCA at top. A manuscript date Popayan, Octubre 1 de 1900 appears centrally alongside a handwritten signature. The legends REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA and EL BANCO DEL ESTADO run along the lower margin, with denomination numerals 50 at the corners. |
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| Comments |
El Banco del Estado was the state bank of Sonora, one of several Mexican regional banks operating under the 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito, which granted concession rights to issue paper currency within defined territorial limits. The small denominations in this series — and 20 centavos is among the smallest — were printed to address the chronic shortage of small change that plagued northern Mexican commerce, where silver fractional coin was routinely hoarded or melted.
Pick S502 places this squarely in the Sonoran concession issues. Surviving examples at this denomination are genuinely scarce; low-value notes from provincial Mexican banks circulated hard and were rarely preserved.