100 Bolivianos

The Banco Mercantil was a private commercial bank operating in Bolivia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — one of several regional institutions granted note-issuing privileges before the Bolivian government centralized that authority under the Banco de la Nación Boliviana in 1911. Notes of this type issued by private banks were thereafter progressively withdrawn from circulation and either redeemed or destroyed, which accounts for the relative scarcity of high-denomination survivors like this 100 Bolivianos.

American Bank Note Company handled the printing, as was common for Bolivian private bank issues of the period — La Paz lacked the infrastructure, and ABNC's New York plant was the default choice for South American institutions wanting security printing that could credibly deter forgery.