50 Francs

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.