50 Soles

The Compañia de Obras Públicas y Fomento del Perú was a private concession company operating under government contract, not a bank — which makes this note an unusual instrument. The Peruvian government granted the company quasi-banking privileges during the 1870s fiscal crisis as part of arrangements tied to guano revenue and public works financing. Issuing circulating notes was part of that deal.

National Bank Note Company of New York printed the series, the same firm behind much of Latin America's paper currency in this period. The company merged into the American Bank Note Company in 1879, three years after this issue.