100 Centavos de Inca

This note belongs to one of the most chaotic monetary episodes in Peruvian history. The Inca was introduced in 1881 as a forced currency during the War of the Pacific, when Chilean forces occupied Lima and the Peruvian government had effectively collapsed. With no functioning treasury and silver coinage hoarded or exported, the provisional government under Francisco García Calderón authorized paper emission backed by nothing credible.

The public refused it almost universally. Merchants discounted it heavily or rejected it outright, and much of the issue circulated — if it circulated at all — at fractions of face value. The series was short-lived and largely repudiated once political authority was partially restored.

Pick 13 is among the scarcer denominations of the Inca series, partly because low-value notes saw harder use and partly because few bothered to preserve currency so widely distrusted.