5 Pesos El Banco de Sonora

El Banco de Sonora was one of the regional banks chartered under Mexico's 1897 Ley General de Instituciones de Crédito, which broke the near-monopoly of the Banco Nacional and Banco de Londres by licensing state-level institutions to issue currency. Sonora's proximity to Arizona made American Bank Note Company the practical choice for production, and the engraving quality reflects full ABNC commercial standards of the period rather than any cost-cutting.

Charles Burt had been ABNC's principal portrait engraver since the Civil War era and was well into his seventies by the time this series was issued — among the last major commissions bearing his credit before his death in 1892, which means the plates were cut before this note's earliest issue date and reused across the full 1898–1911 run.