Catalog
5 Pesos W&S print
| Issuer | República de Chile |
|---|---|
| Year | 1899-1918 |
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| Reference(s) | P#18 |
| Obverse description | Black on brown underprint, reduced format relative to earlier issues. Portrait vignette of General Ramón Freire at right, a village landscape vignette at upper left, and a plumed heraldic shield at centre right. Issued with various handstamp varieties; printed by Waterlow & Sons, London. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red-orange, the reverse is composed of dense engine-turned guilloche work arranged symmetrically. A central diamond-shaped panel carries the bold inscription REPÚBLICA DE CHILE flanked by the numeral 5 above and below, while large circular rosette medallions with the numeral 5 in script occupy the left and right fields. Four ornate lozenge-shaped guilloche cartouches fill the corners, and the printer's imprint appears at the lower left and lower right margins. |
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| Comments |
Chile's P#18 was issued across nearly two decades, a span that covered significant monetary turbulence — the country had suspended gold convertibility in 1878 and would not meaningfully restore it until the 1920s, meaning these notes circulated through a prolonged period of paper currency inconvertibility and persistent inflationary pressure.
Waterlow & Sons handled the printing in London throughout the entire series run. Long association between the Chilean government and British security printers was typical of the period, when South American treasuries routinely relied on European firms for engraved currency work rather than developing domestic printing infrastructure.