Catalog
50 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
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| Currency | Pre-Republic (1870-1898) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA ISLA DE CUBA Á LA PRESENTACION DE ESTE BILLETE PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR CINCUENTA CENTAVOS EN METÁLICO HABANA, 15 de Mayo de 1896. (Translation: The Spanish Bank of the Island of Cuba. On presentation of this note will pay the bearer Fifty Centavos in metallic coin. Havana, May 15th, 1896.) |
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| Reverse lettering | 50 50 EL BANCO ESPAÑOL • DE LA ISLA DE CUBA • (Translation: The Spanish Bank of the Island of Cuba) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba issued this note during the final years of Spanish colonial rule, when the island was already deep into the Cuban War of Independence — the same conflict that would draw in the United States two years later and end Spanish presence in the Americas entirely. Financing a counterinsurgency while maintaining a functioning currency was an increasingly desperate exercise by 1896.
The American Bank Note Company printed the series in New York, an irony given the political trajectory. ABNC held printing contracts with Spanish colonial institutions throughout this period regardless of the underlying geopolitics.