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20 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco Mercantil y Agrícola |
|---|---|
| Year | 1929 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Bolívares |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by a central vignette of a busy port scene with a large steamship docked at a wharf, railway locomotives, and workers unloading cargo, all rendered in fine intaglio engraving. The bank title BANCO MERCANTIL Y AGRICOLA arches across the top, with COMPAÑÍA ANÓNIMA – CAPITAL: Bs. 6.000.000 in a smaller legend below it. The numeral 20 appears in large intaglio figures at left and right within elaborate guilloche panels, with red serial numbers printed in letterpress at upper left and upper right, and the place of issue CARACAS at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in green and presents a symmetrical allegorical composition in which two winged female figures flank a central shield bearing the interlaced monogram of the bank, the whole executed in crisp intaglio line engraving in the American Bank Note Company style. The denomination VEINTE BOLÍVARES is inscribed across the top in two panels, with the numeral 20 repeated in guilloche cartouches at each corner and the word BOLÍVARES in vertical panels at the sides. The bank title BANCO MERCANTIL Y AGRICOLA and the location CARACAS, VENEZUELA appear along the lower margin, with the printer's imprint AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY at the very base. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Mercantil y Agrícola was one of Venezuela's private commercial banks operating under the banking law of 1918, which permitted note issuance subject to gold reserve requirements. By 1929, Venezuela's oil revenues were reshaping the economy rapidly under Gómez, and private bank notes were increasingly under pressure from the Banco de Venezuela's dominant position. This denomination would have seen real commercial circulation in Caracas trade.
ABNC produced the plate work in New York to its usual high intaglio standard. The "P#232" assignment suggests a relatively scarce survival rate for this issuer across the series.