Catalog
50 Centavos Certificado de deposito de oro
| Issuer | Junta de Vigilancia de la Emisión de Cheques Circulares |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on plain paper and centres on an oval vignette with an allegorical female figure of Liberty seated, accompanied by a shield and Andean motifs, enclosed within fine guilloche lacework. The heading 'CERTIFICADO DE DEPOSITO DE ORO' arches across the top, while the cross-axis underprint 'MEDIO SOL DE PLATA' traverses the face in large letters; the denomination '50 Centavos' appears in each corner, with the date 'Lima, 17 de Agosto de 1917' at lower left and the Libras Peruanas equivalent '0.0.50' at lower right. Three manuscript signatures appear below the central vignette, with issuer and legislative authority text filling the remaining border space. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in golden-ochre on plain paper and centres on a large vignette of the Peruvian national arms — a quartered shield bearing the cinchona tree, cornucopia, and vicuña, surmounted by a laurel wreath — set within an elaborate guilloche rosette. The inscription 'CINCUENTA' arches above the arms and 'CENTAVOS' below, with the numeral '50' repeated in both side margins. Conversion text detailing redeemability in gold coinage runs along the upper and lower borders. |
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| Comments |
The Junta de Vigilancia de la Emisión de Cheques Circulares was a short-lived supervisory body established during Peru's monetary turmoil of the mid-1910s, when a shortage of hard coin forced improvised fractional currency into everyday commerce. These gold deposit certificates — certificados de depósito de oro — were not banknotes in the conventional sense but receipts against a gold reserve, a legal distinction that mattered enormously at the time and was widely ignored by the public that used them as change.
Lithografía Seghem in Lima handled production, which kept this entirely a domestic operation. Small-format fractional issues from this body are scarce; the 50 centavos denomination saw heavy transactional use and survived poorly.