Catalog
200 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Español de Puerto Rico |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889-1890 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peso (1890-1900) |
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| Obverse description | Black on orange and yellow underprint. A figure of Justice appears at left alongside a seated woman with globe at center, with a Paschal lamb vignette at right. Intricate guilloche patterns frame the central design elements throughout the note. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in orange, the reverse is dominated by a central vignette of the crowned Spanish royal arms set within an architectural frame, surrounded by elaborate radiating guilloche rosettes at each corner and along the borders. The denomination '200' appears both at the top and bottom in bold numerals, with the issuing bank name arching along the left and right margins. The imprint of the American Bank Note Company, New York, appears at the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de Puerto Rico was established by royal decree in 1888 as the island's sole note-issuing authority under Spanish colonial administration — a deliberate late effort to integrate Puerto Rico more firmly into the Spanish monetary system at a moment when that empire was already contracting. This 200 Pesos denomination sits at the top of the bank's original series, meaning it was intended primarily for large commercial transactions rather than everyday exchange.
ABNC's involvement was an open secret that Madrid tolerated: Spanish colonial banks frequently turned to American and British security printers for technical quality the peninsula's own facilities couldn't match. The bank survived less than a decade before the Spanish-American War of 1898 ended Spanish sovereignty entirely, and the subsequent currency conversion rendered these notes void.
High-denomination survivors from this series are genuinely rare — most were either redeemed or destroyed during the transition to U.S. administration.