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4 Centavos Fuertes
| Issuer | Banco Nacional |
|---|---|
| Year | 1873 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Green and black note with the bank title EL BANCO NACIONAL in large lettering across the upper centre, printed by the American Bank Note Company, New York, as stated in the top border. A central vignette shows an allegorical figure with a safe or strongbox, flanked by numeral 4 counters on either side. The denomination CUATRO CENTAVOS FUERTES is rendered in bold script across the lower centre, with the place and date Buenos Ayres, Agosto 1ro de 1873 inscribed above, and a guilloche underprint framing the entire face. Two manuscript signatures appear at the bottom, attributed to El Inspector and El Directorio respectively, above a small Argentine coat of arms vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is essentially plain, printed on white cotton paper with faint impressions visible through the sheet from the obverse printing, and shows no deliberate design elements or inscriptions. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional of Argentina issued this fractional note during a period when small coin was chronically scarce across the River Plate region — a shortage severe enough that privately issued paper fractions and even postage stamps had been pressed into circulation as substitutes. Four centavos is an unusually low denomination for a chartered bank issue, and the American Bank Note Company's involvement signals this was a formally contracted printing, not an emergency stopgap.
The PS prefix in Pick's catalog places it among speciman or private bank issues, and Argentine provincial and national banking history of the 1870s is littered with institutions that issued notes under federal charter but failed before full redemption. Worth confirming which specific redemption history applies to this series.