Catalog
5 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Londres y Sud America |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is executed in intaglio on cream-tinted paper with an elaborate guilloche border framing the entire note. At upper centre, the bank title reads BANCO DE LONDRES Y SUD AMERICA above a royal coat of arms flanked by supporters; a vignette to the upper left depicts a standing female figure, while a tropical agricultural vignette with a figure and palm appears at the lower right. The denomination $5 appears in ornate rosettes at the upper right and lower left corners, with the promise text in Spanish script reading 'El Banco en Lima pagará á la vista al portador CINCO PESOS en efectivo' across the centre field, dated Lima, de 18__, and bearing the overprint SPECIMEN across the lower portion. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE LONDRES Y SUD AMERICA El Banco en Lima pagará á la vista al portador CINCO PESOS en efectivo. Lima de 18 For the LONDON & SOUTH AMERICAN BANK, LIMITED. Account Manager Director SPECIMEN $5 |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Londres y Sud America was the Argentine subsidiary of the London and River Plate Bank, one of the most powerful British merchant banks operating in South America through the latter half of the nineteenth century. Its Argentine note-issuing privileges were tied directly to the complex provincial and national banking legislation of the 1860s–1870s, a period when multiple private banks simultaneously held authority to circulate paper currency alongside — and often competing with — federal issues.
American Bank Note Company printed the bulk of Latin American private bank issues during this period, and the S251 series shares plate work with several contemporaneous issues from other ABnc clients in the region. The "S" prefix in the Pick reference denotes unlisted or specialist classification — these circulated as genuine currency, not scrip.