1 Peso

Banco de A. Edwards y Cía. was one of Chile's prominent private issuing banks of the nineteenth century, part of a banking system that operated under the 1860 Ley de Bancos allowing private institutions to print their own circulating notes. The Edwards family banking house had deep roots in Valparaíso commerce, and their paper was generally well-regarded in Chilean trade. This 1 Peso note dates from just before the catastrophic 1879 financial pressures brought by the War of the Pacific, which began that same year and eventually forced Chilean banks to suspend specie payments in 1878 — a suspension that was already in effect when this note would have entered circulation.

American Bank Note Company's involvement guaranteed a high standard of intaglio work, though the plate designs for Chilean private bank issues of this period were often shared or adapted across multiple client banks.