Catalog
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| Issuer | Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company, New York, United States |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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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| Variants | P#46a - issued note without overprint P#46b - red diagonal overprint "PLATA" |
| 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.