5 Pesos Tesoro Nacional

Among the rarest surviving examples of Paraguayan paper currency, this note was issued under the government of Francisco Solano López during the final years before the catastrophic War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870). Paraguay at this point had no central bank — the Tesoro Nacional functioned as a direct state treasury, issuing notes against government obligation rather than any formal banking reserve. The Riviere lithography shop in Asunción produced the note entirely in-country, a logistical necessity given Paraguay's near-total economic isolation under the López administrations.

The absence of any security features reflects both the limited printing technology available locally and a population too small and contained for counterfeiting to be a serious concern.