Catalog
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| Issuer | Banco de Honduras |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
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| Currency | Second Peso (decimalized, 1879-1931) |
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| Obverse description | Black print on orange and yellow guilloche underprint. A steer head vignette occupies the center, flanked at left by a seated allegorical female figure and at center right by the Coat of Arms of the Republic of Honduras. The note is dated 1 October 1889 and overprinted SPECIMEN. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | 100 BANCO DE HONDURAS TEGUCIGALPA CIEN PESOS AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY, NEW YORK. (Translation: Bank of Honduras Tegucigalpa One Hundred Pesos) |
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| Comments |
Banco de Honduras was a private commercial bank operating under Honduran government concession, not a central bank — its notes circulated as the functional currency of the republic at a time when Honduras had no state-issued paper money. The American Bank Note Company in New York handled the printing for much of Latin American private banking paper in this period, and Honduras was well within that orbit.
By 1889 the denomination was already ambitious given Honduras's monetary instability. The republic had struggled with near-constant fiscal crisis through the 1880s, driven partly by defaulted British railway loans. A 100 Peso note would have represented serious purchasing power, and high-denomination issues from distressed economies of this era frequently sat unissued in bank vaults rather than passing through commercial hands.