Catalog
5 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Panamá |
|---|---|
| Year | 1869 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | Orange-brown note with an intricate guilloche border running along all four edges. At left, an intaglio oval vignette contains a bust portrait of a man in formal dress. To the right, a central allegorical vignette shows a terrestrial globe flanked by a sailing vessel and a steam locomotive, evoking commerce and progress. The denomination numeral '5' appears in the upper corners, with the bank title 'BANCO DE PANAMÁ' inscribed in bold lettering across the upper centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue-green on white paper, the reverse is dominated by two large circular guilloche rosettes flanking a central panel bearing the three-line inscription of the bank name. An elaborate interlocking guilloche underprint fills the entire field, with fine lathe-work geometric patterns in the borders. A red diagonal cancellation overprint appears across the right portion of the note. |
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| Comments |
Banco de Panamá was a short-lived private commercial bank, and this 1869 issue predates Panama's separation from Colombia by over three decades — the note circulated under Colombian sovereignty, in a province whose banking infrastructure was thin at best. The American Bank Note Company handled much of Latin America's private bank printing at this period, and the quality of their intaglio work was generally consistent regardless of how precarious the issuing institution's finances were.
Banco de Panamá failed well before the isthmus gained independence, making surviving notes genuinely scarce. The bank's short operational history means documentation on redemption rates and actual circulation volumes remains fragmentary.