Catalog
50 Soles
| Issuer | Banco La Providencia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1877 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The obverse carries the bold bank title BANCO LA PROVIDENCIA across the upper centre, with the denomination numeral 50 set within scalloped cartouches at left and right. A central vignette shows a pastoral scene with cattle and horsemen. To the left stands a classical female figure amid foliage, while the right side bears a caduceus-and-wheel vignette. The note includes handwritten payable text referencing Lima and a manuscript date line reading 'Lima, ... de 18..', with a manuscript signature below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO LA PROVIDENCIA PERU 50 CINCUENTA SOLES Lima, Nº |
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| Comments |
Banco La Providencia was one of several Lima-based private banks authorized to issue notes under Peru's 1873 banking law, which allowed commercial institutions to circulate paper money backed by metallic reserves held on deposit. The arrangement collapsed within a decade — the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) devastated Peru's finances, the reserve system broke down entirely, and most private bank notes became worthless. La Providencia itself did not survive the crisis.
That trajectory makes high-denomination survivors from 1877 genuinely uncommon. Notes were circulating just two years before the war began.