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500 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba |
|---|---|
| Year | 1896 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO ESPAÑOL DE LA ISLA DE CUBA QUIINIENTOS pesos fuertes a la presentacion de este billete pagará al portador en metálico Habana EL GOBERNADOR EL CONSEJERO 500 |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in a single reddish-brown tone and divided into four quadrants by intersecting guilloche bands, each outer corner bearing the numeral 500. A central oval vignette contains a portrait bust, likely of the Spanish monarch, in profile facing left, surrounded by fine lathe-work guilloche ornament. The overall design relies on engine-turned geometric patterns without textual inscription. |
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| Comments |
By 1896, the Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba was issuing paper against a colonial economy under severe strain — the Cuban War of Independence had resumed the previous year, and Spanish military expenditure on the island was escalating rapidly. This 500 Peso note belongs to a series widely understood to have been issued partly to finance that war effort rather than to serve ordinary commercial banking needs.
High-denomination notes from this final period of Spanish colonial banking in Cuba rarely survived in quantity. The political collapse of 1898 left the bank's outstanding issues unredeemed, and most examples still in existence were preserved outside Cuba entirely.