Catalog
5 Bolivianos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de Bolivia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO NACIONAL DE BOLIVIA SUCRE, Enero 1º de 1904 CINCO BOLIVIANOS EN MONEDA CORRIENTE Pagará á la vista al portador Serie A DELEGADO DEL GOBIERNO POR EL CONTADOR P.P. DIRECTOR GERENTE Bradbury Wilkinson & Cº Grabadores Londres |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown on cream paper, the reverse is dominated by a central oval vignette of a classical female allegorical figure set against a lightly engraved landscape background, surrounded by elaborate acanthus scroll guilloche work. Flanking the central medallion are two rectangular panels each bearing the word 'CINCO' in bold serif lettering, with the large numeral '5' repeated in the lower corners. The arc inscriptions 'BANCO NACIONAL' above and 'BOLIVIA' below frame the central vignette within the oval border. |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional de Bolivia was a private commercial institution operating under government concession, not a state central bank — a distinction that mattered enormously when Bolivia's banking law of 1890 had already granted it note-issuing privileges that survived well into the early twentieth century. Bradbury Wilkinson, working from their New Malden facility, supplied a significant portion of Latin American currency during this period and brought consistent intaglio quality to clients who lacked domestic printing capacity.
Bolivia's monetary situation in 1904 remained tangled in the aftermath of the War of the Pacific, which had stripped the country of its Pacific coastline and the nitrate revenues that went with it. Demand for circulating notes in the interior was real, but confidence in privately issued paper was uneven at best.