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40 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco de Maracaibo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915-1917 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE MARACAIBO CAPITAL BE Bs. 1,250,000 COMPAÑIA ANONIMA VALE CUARENTA BOLIVARES B40 1º de enero de 1917 GERENTE SEGUNDO DIRECTOR PRINCIPAL |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green, the reverse is composed of an elaborate lathe-work guilloche design with a large rosette medallion at the centre surrounded by intricate engine-turned geometric patterns filling the entire field. The denomination numeral 40 appears in each of the four corners within ornate scroll cartouches, and fine lace-like borderwork frames the composition on all sides. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Maracaibo was one of Venezuela's few regionally chartered private banks to survive into the twentieth century with note-issuing privileges intact. By 1915, it operated in an environment where the Caracas-based government had repeatedly failed to establish a stable central bank, leaving institutions like this one to fill the void in the Zulia region — Venezuela's commercial gateway to Lake Maracaibo and the nascent petroleum trade.
ABNC produced this denomination alongside the rest of the Banco de Maracaibo series under contract, a routine arrangement for Latin American private bank issues of the period. The 40-bolívar face value is the genuinely odd detail here: it fits no logical decimal sequence and almost certainly reflects a specific regional commercial convention or debt-settlement denomination rather than standard monetary planning.