500 Soles

La Providencia — Sociedad General del Perú was one of several private commercial banks chartered in Lima during the early 1860s boom in Peruvian banking, itself fueled by guano export revenues flooding the national economy. These institutions issued their own notes with minimal central oversight, a practice that collapsed badly later in the decade as overleveraged banks failed and public confidence evaporated.

At 500 Soles, this is among the highest denominations the bank produced — a figure that would have moved between merchants and trading houses, not ordinary hands. Few survived.