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500 Reales de Vellón Banco de Bilbao
| Issuer | Banco de Bilbao |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE BILBAO QUINIENTOS REALES VELLON en efectivo pagaderos al Portador a presentación. Bilbao ... de ... 18 ... (Translation: Bank of Bilbao Five hundred Reales Vellon in cash payable to bearer upon presentation. Bilbao ... of ... of 18 ...) |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, consisting of plain paper stock with no vignette, text, or ornamental elements, consistent with mid-nineteenth-century Spanish provincial banknote practice. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Bilbao received its royal charter in 1857, making this 500 Reales de Vellón one of the earliest — possibly inaugural — issues from that institution. Spain's provincial banking law of 1856 had authorized individual commercial banks across the peninsula to issue their own notes, a decentralized arrangement that lasted only until the Bank of Spain's monopoly was enforced through the 1874 decree. That left the entire Bilbao private issue series with a circulation window of under two decades.
The reales de vellón denomination itself was already being phased out in favor of the escudo by 1864, which compresses this note's active life further still.