5 Pesos

The Banco Español de la Habana occupied an unusual position: a privately chartered Spanish colonial bank operating on a Caribbean island in the middle of an armed insurgency. The Ten Years' War (1868–1878) created precisely the kind of fiscal instability that pushed colonial authorities to lean harder on paper currency, and notes of this series circulated under conditions of genuine economic stress.

The American Bank Note Company contract is worth noting — Spanish colonial administrations frequently turned to New York engravers rather than peninsular printers, a pragmatic choice driven by ABNC's security printing capabilities rather than any ideological preference.