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20 Pesos

Issuer Banco Nacional de Chile
Year 1872
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Currency Peso (1851-1925)
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Obverse description The obverse is arranged in a horizontal format with the bold header "EL BANCO NACIONAL DE CHILE" at the top centre, flanked by the denomination numeral "20" in each upper corner and large ornate "20" figures in orange at the centre. To the left, a vertical vignette in intaglio engraving depicts a classical allegorical scene with figures, while the Chilean national coat of arms appears at the upper centre between the denomination numerals. A central orange guilloche panel carries the legend "VEINTE PESOS" in bold letterpress, with manuscript lines below indicating payability at Valparaíso and a signature line for the Superintendente de la Casa de Moneda.
Obverse lettering EL BANCO NACIONAL DE CHILE
VEINTE
20
Pagará al portador á la vista un
VEINTE PESOS
Moneda Corriente Valparaíso
Superintendente de la Casa de Moneda
Contador
Director Jeneral
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The Banco Nacional de Chile was a private commercial bank established in 1865 with substantial backing from Chilean and foreign merchant capital — one of several competing note-issuing banks operating before Chile's 1925 monetary reforms centralized currency authority under the Banco Central. ABNC handled the bulk of Chilean private bank printing during this period, supplying notes from New York that were then signed and serialled locally before release into circulation.

Pick 320 is among the scarcer survivors of this early Chilean private banking era. The 1872 date places it well before the 1878 financial crisis that destabilized several of the country's note-issuing institutions and triggered widespread redemption suspensions.