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5 Bolivianos
| Issuer | Banco Potosí |
|---|---|
| Year | 1894 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on pale paper with a yellow-orange underprint. The bank title 'BANCO POTOSÍ' appears in large serif lettering across the upper portion, flanked by the denomination numeral '5' in ornate counters at each corner. A central vignette presents a steam locomotive in three-quarter view, rendered in fine intaglio engraving, while to the left a circular guilloche medallion encloses the Bolivian coat of arms. To the right, a classical allegorical figure is seated in a smaller vignette. The date 'SUCRE, Enero 1° de 1894' is inscribed in the upper right, with the promise text 'PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR Á LA VISTA' and 'CINCO BOLIVIANOS EN MONEDA CORRIENTE' in the lower central panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO POTOSÍ SUCRE, Enero 1° de 1894 5 PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR Á LA VISTA CINCO BOLIVIANOS EN MONEDA CORRIENTE POR EL CAJERO P.P. DIRECTOR GERENTE |
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| Comments |
Banco Potosí was one of several Bolivian departmental banks authorized under the 1890 Ley de Bancos, which granted private institutions the right to issue their own notes — a deliberately decentralized arrangement that produced a patchwork of competing regional currencies throughout the decade. The bank's operations were anchored in the silver-mining economy of Potosí, a city whose output had been in structural decline since the colonial peak but still drove enough regional commerce to sustain a chartered bank of issue.
The American Bank Note Company held the contract, as it did for the majority of Bolivian departmental banks during this period, essentially supplying the country's private note-issuing infrastructure from a single New York address.