Catalog
50 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Agrícola Mercantil |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S111 |
| Obverse description | Black on blue, yellow, and green underprint; a sailor vignette occupies the left margin while an allegorical reclining female figure representing Agriculture fills the center. Order numbers are printed in red. The note carries the founding inscription of the bank and the issue date of November 6, 1888, at León, Nicaragua. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | BANCO AGRICOLA MERCANTIL 50 CINCUENTA AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK (Translation: Mercantile Agricultural Bank 50 Fifty American Bank Note Company, New York) |
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| Comments |
Banco Agrícola Mercantil was a Guatemalan private bank operating under the liberal banking legislation of the 1880s, a period when the Guatemalan government granted concessions to multiple competing commercial banks, each authorized to issue their own circulating notes. The American Bank Note Company was the prestige choice for such institutions — expensive, but the engraved intaglio work was a credible deterrent against the forgeries that plagued lithographed regional issues.
The S-prefix in the Pick reference places this firmly in the Specialized catalog for private and provincial issues, reflecting its non-government status. Banco Agrícola Mercantil did not survive the 1926 nationalization that consolidated Guatemalan note issue under the Banco Central.