20 Soles

The Banco Nacional del Perú was a private commercial bank that received note-issuing privileges in the 1870s, operating during a period when Peru's fiscal position was deteriorating sharply despite — or partly because of — its guano export revenues. The bank collapsed in the financial crisis that deepened around the War of the Pacific, and note redemption became increasingly chaotic after 1879.

American Bank Note Company produced the plates in New York, as they did for numerous Latin American issuers of this period. ABNC's work for Peruvian banks from this era is among the more sought-after in South American notaphily, largely because so little survived the monetary upheaval of the war years.