Catalog
4 Pesos Tesoro Nacional
| Issuer | Tesoro Nacional (National Treasury) of Paraguay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Peso (1856-1944) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CUATRO PESOS REPÚBLICA DEL PARAGUAY EL TESORO NACIONAL Pagará al portador la cantidad de CUATRO PESOS valor recibido La Ley perseguirá á los falsificadores y sus cómplices. CUATRO PESOS (Translation: Four Pesos Republic of Paraguay The National Treasury will pay the bearer Four Pesos, paid amount. The Law will prosecute counterfeiters and his accomplices. Four Pesos) |
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Paraguay in 1861 was under the rule of Carlos Antonio López, who had been systematically building a state-controlled economy since the 1840s — including a government printing office capable of producing its own currency without foreign contractors. This note is a direct product of that policy. Printing domestically was a deliberate rejection of the dependency on European houses like Bradbury or Perkins Bacon that most South American governments accepted without question.
The Tesoro Nacional series circulated during an unusual moment of Paraguayan fiscal relative stability, before the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) erased roughly half the country's population and rendered most pre-war paper worthless. Survivors of this issue are genuinely uncommon.