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20 Pesos Fuertes
| Issuer | Banco J. Benites é Hijo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1868 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out in a horizontal format with large numeral '20' counters in red guilloche at each upper corner. A central vignette occupies the upper middle register, presenting a busy port or railway scene with a locomotive and waterfront structures rendered in fine intaglio engraving. Below, the issuer's name 'BANCO J. BENITES É HIJO' is inscribed in bold lettering, followed by the denomination 'VEINTE PESOS FUERTES' set within an oval underprint band. A portrait vignette of a bearded gentleman appears at the lower left, balanced by a portrait of a young woman at the lower right, both executed in detailed intaglio style. Serial number panels reading '0000' appear at the lower corners, with the overprint 'MUESTRA' indicating this is a specimen note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO J. BENITES É HIJO Pagará al portador a la vista VEINTE PESOS FUERTES en moneda metálica de ley Guadalajara, 15 de Octubre de 1868 MUESTRA |
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| Comments |
Banco J. Benites é Hijo was a private provincial bank operating in Argentina during the brief window when individual commercial houses could issue their own currency — a practice the national government moved aggressively to curtail through the 1870s and 1880s. Notes from this issuer are rare survivors of that pre-consolidation period, when monetary authority was genuinely fragmented across dozens of private and regional institutions.
The American Bank Note Company contract is unremarkable for Argentine private banking paper of this decade — ABNC held a near-monopoly on quality intaglio work for South American issuers throughout the 1860s. What distinguishes PS#1564 is simply the obscurity of the issuing house itself: Benites é Hijo left almost no documentary trace, and the full scope of their note-issuing activity remains poorly catalogued.