Catalog
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| Issuer | El Banco Mexicano |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 105 × 55 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on yellow underprint; at left, a vignette of a farmer holding a sheaf of wheat beside a horse, rendered in fine line engraving. The denomination numeral '25' appears in large format at centre within a circular guilloche rosette, with the value in words 'Veinticinco Centavos' to the right. The place and date 'Chihuahua, 1888' appear at upper right, with the bank title 'El Banco Mexicano' arching across the upper portion, below which 'SÉRIE A' is printed; two manuscript signatures appear at lower right above the titles 'Gerente' and 'Interventor del Gobierno'. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown and olive-green; at centre, a portrait vignette of a Native woman in three-quarter view, rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The denomination '25' appears in mirror-script guilloche cartouches at left and right, with 'VEINTICINEO' and 'CENTAVOS' reading vertically in the respective side panels. The bank title is split across the top and bottom margins, reading 'BANCO' above and 'MEXICANO' below, framed by an ornate geometric border. A blue-green oval seal underprint is visible at centre behind the portrait vignette. |
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| Comments |
El Banco Mexicano was one of the earliest private commercial banks chartered under the Lerdo and Díaz administrations, operating out of the port city of Mazatlán before Sinaloa had any serious banking infrastructure. The 1884 banking law gave these state-level concessions limited note-issuing rights, and denominations this small — fractional centavos issues — were partly intended to address a chronic shortage of small silver coinage in Pacific coast commerce.
ABNC produced the plates in New York; the bank itself was liquidated well before the 1910 revolution swept away most of Mexico's private banking system under the Juárez-era concession framework entirely.