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1 Peso
| Issuer | Banco de Melipilla |
|---|---|
| Year | 1879 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper. The central vignette presents a pastoral rural scene with a mounted horseman and figures in a landscape, typical of American Bank Note Company engraving style. To the left, an oval vignette shows a shepherdess with sheep; to the right, a seated female figure writes, with the denomination cartouche above reading 'PESO / Melipilla'. The bank title 'BANCO DE MELIPILLA' runs across the top, with the legend 'VALE AL PORTADOR A LA VISTA POR' and 'UN PESO MONEDA CORRIENTE DE CHILE' beneath the central vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE MELIPILLA VALE AL PORTADOR A LA VISTA POR UN PESO MONEDA CORRIENTE DE CHILE UN PESO SUPERINTENDENTE DE LA CASA DE MONEDA CONTADOR GERENTE SERIE A Melipilla |
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| Comments |
Banco de Melipilla was a provincial Chilean bank operating under the 1860 Ley de Bancos, which permitted regionally chartered institutions to issue their own currency — a system that produced dozens of competing private banknotes across Chile before the state finally consolidated issuance in the 1880s. Melipilla, a small agricultural town southwest of Santiago, was an unlikely seat for a note-issuing bank, and the institution was correspondingly short-lived.
The American Bank Note Company contract is unsurprising for the period; ABNC dominated Latin American private bank printing through the 1870s and 1880s. What the Pick reference doesn't capture is how rarely these provincial Chilean issues surface — Melipilla's limited commercial reach meant small print runs and even smaller survival rates.