50 Pesetas

Bartolomé Maura y Montaner was among the most accomplished Spanish engravers of the nineteenth century — his work on postage stamps and official documents is well documented, and his involvement here places this note firmly within a tradition of high-quality intaglio work produced domestically rather than outsourced to the major foreign security printers then dominating European note production.

The Banco de España's 1889 series appeared during the Restoration period under the Cánovas government, when the bank held its monopoly on note issuance — consolidated by the 1874 decree — on increasingly firm legal ground. By 1889 that monopoly was no longer contested.