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50 Pesos Banco Español de La Habana
| Issuer | Banco Español de La Habana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA HABANA N°. Habana ___ de ____ de 18__ El Banco Español de La Habana á la presentacion de este billete pagará al portador Cincuenta pesos fuertes en efectivo. $50 HABANA $50 EL DIRECTOR EL SUBDIRECTOR EL CONSEJERO EL CAJERO (Translation: SPANISH BANK OF HAVANA No. Havana ___ of ____ of 18__ The Spanish Bank of Havana, upon presentation of this bill, will pay the bearer fifty pesos in cash. $50 HAVANA $50 THE DIRECTOR THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR THE COUNSEL THE CASHIER) |
| Reverse description | Blank, uniface printing with no design or lettering on the reverse. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Español de La Habana was established by royal charter in 1856 as the first bank of issue in Cuba, then still a Spanish colony, and this 50 Pesos note from its inaugural series represents the bank's first year of operation. Bradbury Wilkinson, already well established as a security printer by the mid-1850s, produced the plates in London — a common arrangement for colonial currency where local printing infrastructure was either absent or untrusted.
The uniface production is worth noting: single-sided printing was a cost and logistics decision, not a security oversight, though it left these notes more vulnerable to counterfeiting than the bank's later issues. P#A1 status confirms this as the earliest catalogued type for the institution.