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4 Reales Tesoro Nacional
| Issuer | Tesoro Nacional de la República del Paraguay |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 4 Reales (1/2) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A goat vignette appears at upper left alongside the national coat of arms at upper center, both printed by letterpress on plain paper stock. The body of the note carries a hand-written promissory text in Spanish, authenticated by hand-applied manuscript signatures and a hand-written serial number, reflecting the rudimentary production methods of Paraguay's earliest paper currency issue. The note was hand-cut to size, giving it irregular margins, and is uniface with no reverse impression. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, entirely without impression, consistent with the uniface production of this issue. |
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| Comments |
Paraguay's 1856 issues were produced under the government of Carlos Antonio López, whose administration maintained one of the most isolated and state-controlled economies in nineteenth-century South America. The Tesoro Nacional functioned not as a central bank but as a direct instrument of the executive, and these notes circulated in an economy where foreign trade was heavily restricted and domestic commerce operated largely on government terms.
Printed locally in Asunción — unusual for a Latin American state of this period, most of which relied on European printers — the crude production quality reflects the limits of what was available in a deliberately insular country. No engraved plates from London or Paris; whatever the state press could manage was what circulated.