Catalog
5 Reales de Inca
| Issuer | República del Perú |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Reales de Inca |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BILLETE PROVISIONAL CINCO Bs. CINCO REALES DE INCA Pagará a la vista GERENTES |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in a uniform green tint with bold letterpress text REPUBLICA DEL PERU arching across the upper field. Two lateral vignettes flank the central text: the left vignette shows a llama in a Andean landscape, and the right presents a view of a building or monument. The central inscription reads Pagará al portador en moneda metálica / CINCO REALES DE INCA, with the issue date 1° Setiembre 1881 and place LIMA appearing on both lower corners, and the printer's imprint American Bank Note Co. New York along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Peru's 1881 emission was produced under severe duress — the country was occupied by Chilean forces during the War of the Pacific, and Lima itself fell in January of that year. The government in exile continued contracting ABNC in New York partly because maintaining formal monetary infrastructure was itself a political act, a signal of institutional continuity against occupation.
The "Reales de Inca" denomination is an oddity. Peru had officially adopted a decimal system years earlier, making this a deliberate archaism, likely calculated to invoke pre-colonial legitimacy at a moment when the republican apparatus was under maximum strain.