Catalog
50 Francs
| Issuer | Banca della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano |
|---|---|
| Year | 1880-1881 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company, New York, United States |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in dark blue-black intaglio on white paper, centred on a classical allegorical vignette of a seated female figure with a cornucopia accompanied by a child, flanked by the Swiss cross shield. To the left is a portrait vignette of a young woman in traditional dress within an ornate lathe-work oval frame, and to the right an architectural vignette with a trophy of arms. The denomination numeral '50' appears in two large guilloche-bordered counters on either side of the central vignette, with the bank title 'BANCA DELLA SVIZZERA ITALIANA' in bold curved lettering across the top and the value legend 'FRANCHI SVIZZERI CINQUANTA' in prominent letterpress below the central group. Three signature lines for the Cashier, President, and Director appear at the bottom, with the printer's imprint of the American Bank Note Co., New York. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | BANCA DELLA 50 50 50 50 50 SVIZZERA ITALIANA American Bank Note Company, New York. |
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| Comments |
Banca della Svizzera Italiana was a Lugano-based private bank operating under the brief window of Swiss free banking — a period that ended decisively with the Federal Banking Act of 1881 and the eventual consolidation of note-issuing authority under the Swiss National Bank, founded in 1907. This note was printed by the American Bank Note Company at a time when ABNC held contracts across Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe simultaneously, making its New York presses among the busiest in the world for foreign commercial paper.
Private cantonal bank issues from this period are genuinely scarce survivors. Most were redeemed and pulped once federal regulation closed the free-banking era.