5 Pesos Moneda Boliviano

Banco J. Benites é Hijo was a private commercial bank operating in Bolivia during the brief window before the state moved to consolidate note-issuing authority. The American Bank Note Company contract for this series placed production firmly in New York, which was standard practice for South American private banks seeking engraved security printing beyond what local facilities could provide in the 1860s.

PS#1557 is among the scarcer private Bolivian issues of the period. Whether significant quantities actually circulated or were retained as backing instruments is not well documented — Bolivian private bank records from this era are fragmentary at best.