3 Pesos Decrees of 3.9.1811 and 29.6.1813

Puerto Rico's Tesorería Nacional issued this note under a dual-decree authority that was itself a product of imperial improvisation. The decrees of 1811 and 1813 authorizing paper currency in Puerto Rico were responses to a chronic coin shortage on the island — hard currency was perpetually drained toward peninsular Spain or absorbed by military expenditure, leaving local commerce starved of a circulating medium.

The series to which this belongs is among the earliest paper money issued in Puerto Rico, and surviving examples in any condition are genuinely rare. Redemption rates were poor, hoarding was common, and the political instability of the Napoleonic period meant institutional continuity for the Tesorería was never guaranteed.

Pick lists only a handful of confirmed survivors across the entire P#1–P#4 series.