Catalog
20 Soles
| Issuer | Banco de la Compañía General del Perú |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
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| Currency | Sol (1863-1985) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse bears the bank title 'El Banco de la Compañía General del Perú' in bold letterpress across the upper field, flanked by large numeral '20' denominators in each upper corner within ornate guilloche roundels. At center, an allegorical female figure rests amid agricultural and maritime attributes in an intaglio vignette, with a steam locomotive vignette positioned below. To the lower left, a portrait medallion of a bearded gentleman is inscribed with his name and title, with the denomination 'VEINTE SOLES' and place of issue 'Lima' displayed prominently in the lower central field. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | El Banco de la Compañía General del Perú Pagará a la vista en moneda corriente VEINTE SOLES. Lima JOSÉ GALVEZ GERENTE DIRECTORES |
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| Comments |
The Banco de la Compañía General del Perú was one of several private commercial banks chartered in Lima during the credit boom of the early 1870s, a period when Peruvian guano revenues were fueling aggressive financial expansion. The bank's lifespan was short — the fiscal collapse triggered by the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) wiped out most of Peru's private banking sector entirely, making notes from these institutions genuinely uncommon survivors.
ABNC printed the series in New York, a standard arrangement for Peruvian private banks of the period that lacked domestic high-security printing capacity. The S-prefix Pick reference places this firmly in the specialized territory of South American provincial and private issues, where surviving examples are rarely encountered in any condition.