25 Centavos El Banco Mejicano

El Banco Mejicano was one of the earliest private commercial banks chartered in Mexico, operating out of Veracruz during a period when the federal government had not yet established a unified national banking framework — that wouldn't come until the Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito of 1897. These fractional centavo notes filled a genuine gap in small-denomination commerce in a port city chronically short of hard coin.

The National Bank Note Company credit in the printer's imprint is slightly misleading: NBNC merged into the American Bank Note Company in 1879, just one year after this note's issue date, making this a late product of a firm already in its final months of independent operation.