50 Pesos

El Banco Español Filipino was the first bank established in the Philippines, chartered by royal decree in 1851 and granted the exclusive right to issue paper currency in the archipelago. By 1896 — the year the Katipunan launched its armed revolt against Spanish colonial rule — public confidence in the bank was already under strain. Notes of this denomination would have circulated among a merchant class acutely aware that Spanish authority in the islands was collapsing.

Barclay & Fry of London handled the printing, as they did for much of the bank's note series throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. The bank was reorganized and renamed Banco de las Islas Filipinas following the American takeover in 1898, making any note issued under the Español Filipino title a product of the final years of Spanish Pacific commerce.