Catalog
50 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Centro-Americano |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
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| Currency | Peso (1862-1896) |
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| Obverse description | Multicolour note printed on an orange and brown guilloche underprint, with a central allegorical vignette of a seated female figure flanked by cherubs and a barrel. An oval cameo to the left bears the inscription REPÚBLICA DE HONDURAS, while a right-side vignette presents a standing indigenous male figure with a bow; numeral counters of 50 flank a central cartouche carrying the Honduran national coat of arms. The date NOVIEMBRE 30 DE 1888 and the place of issue TEGUCIGALPA are lettered below the central design. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#136 - Specimen, 30.11.1888 |
| Comments |
Banco Centro-Americano was a short-lived Guatemalan private bank operating under the liberal banking legislation of the 1870s and 1880s, which briefly allowed multiple competing note-issuing institutions to function simultaneously. The arrangement collapsed quickly — most of these banks were absorbed or dissolved when Guatemala moved toward centralized monetary control in the 1890s, meaning this issue had an extremely narrow window of legitimate circulation.
American Bank Note Company produced the plates in New York, as it did for the majority of Central American private bank issues of this period. Surviving examples at this denomination are genuinely uncommon, almost certainly because the bank's short operational life limited total issuance.