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40 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco de Maracaibo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915-1917 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper with the bank title BANCO DE MARACAIBO arched across the upper portion and the capital notation BE Bs. 1,250,000. A central vignette presents a seated allegorical female figure at a well flanked by classical columns, with the denomination numeral 40 appearing in each corner and the text VALE CUARENTA BOLIVARES to the lower left and right respectively. To the left margin stands a side vignette of a male figure with agricultural implements, while a small coat of arms vignette appears to the lower right; the date 1º de enero de 1917 and serial number are printed in the upper right area. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green, the reverse is composed of an elaborate lathe-work guilloche design with a large rosette medallion at the centre surrounded by intricate engine-turned geometric patterns filling the entire field. The denomination numeral 40 appears in each of the four corners within ornate scroll cartouches, and fine lace-like borderwork frames the composition on all sides. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Maracaibo was one of Venezuela's few regionally chartered private banks to survive into the twentieth century with note-issuing privileges intact. By 1915, it operated in an environment where the Caracas-based government had repeatedly failed to establish a stable central bank, leaving institutions like this one to fill the void in the Zulia region — Venezuela's commercial gateway to Lake Maracaibo and the nascent petroleum trade.
ABNC produced this denomination alongside the rest of the Banco de Maracaibo series under contract, a routine arrangement for Latin American private bank issues of the period. The 40-bolívar face value is the genuinely odd detail here: it fits no logical decimal sequence and almost certainly reflects a specific regional commercial convention or debt-settlement denomination rather than standard monetary planning.