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20 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Valparaíso |
|---|---|
| Year | 1877 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Pesos |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse presents a horizontal format with an intricate guilloche underprint in pink and black. At the left, an oval vignette contains a portrait of a spaniel dog in fine intaglio engraving, while the central composition shows two allegorical female figures flanking the Chilean coat of arms, set against a lightly etched landscape vignette. The denomination numeral "20" appears at the upper right, with the bank title "EL BANCO DE VALPARAISO" arched across the upper centre, place and date of issue inscribed at the bottom, and serial number panels printed in red at both left and right margins. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in red-orange and black intaglio on a cream paper ground. Two large circular guilloche medallions occupy the left and right fields, bearing the numeral "20" and the Roman numeral "XX" respectively. The central vignette, rendered in fine intaglio, depicts an allegorical female figure wearing a floral wreath and holding a banner, accompanied by a child and a large condor at her feet, set before a curtained background. The legends "BANCO DE VALPARAISO" are distributed across the upper margin and "REPÚBLICA DE CHILE" across the lower, with the printer's imprint "American Bank Note Co. New York" at the bottom centre. |
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| Comments |
Banco de Valparaiso was one of Chile's major private issuing banks during the era of free banking that preceded the 1925 nationalization of currency under the Banco Central. The American Bank Note Company produced this note during a period when virtually every significant Latin American bank of issue sourced its paper currency from either ABNC or its chief rival, the British American Bank Note Company — but Chilean commercial banks showed a strong and consistent preference for the New York firm throughout the 1870s.
The P#490 designation places this within a well-documented ABNC series for Valparaiso, a port city whose banking sector was sufficiently capitalized by copper and nitrate trade to sustain multiple private banks of issue simultaneously.