Catalog
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| Issuer | Banco de Cádiz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1845 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out in a letterpress and intaglio format, with the bank title BANCO DE CÁDIZ in large ornamental script across the top, flanked by decorative scrollwork borders. A central vignette to the lower left portrays Hercules standing between two lions, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The denomination Son 2,000 Rs. Vón. appears twice in bold script across the upper register, with the issue date and place handwritten in cursive below, followed by the bearer clause in copperplate script and three manuscript signatures with their respective titles. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is largely plain paper with a faint pink tint and a light guilloche underprint pattern visible across the surface. Two ink cancellation stamps reading BANCO DE CADIZ EN LIQUIDACION have been applied — one in a semicircular format and one in a rectangular format — along with manuscript cancellation strokes, indicating the note was formally retired during the bank's liquidation proceedings. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Cádiz was one of Spain's earliest provincial banks of issue, chartered in 1846 — which makes an 1845 date on this note an anomaly worth examining. The bank received its royal charter in January 1846, but preparatory notes were almost certainly printed and signed in advance, a common administrative practice in mid-nineteenth century Spanish provincial banking.
Cádiz at this period was Spain's most important Atlantic port, and the bank's notes circulated primarily among merchants, shippers, and customs houses rather than the general public. The reales de vellón denomination — Spain's copper-based monetary unit before the 1868 peseta reform — places this squarely in the chaotic transitional monetary period before unified national currency.