5 Pesos

Banco de Escobar, Ossa y Ca. was one of several Chilean private banks authorized under the 1860 Banking Law, which permitted commercial houses to issue their own notes backed by metallic reserves held on deposit with the government. The arrangement was loosely supervised at best, and a number of these banks collapsed or were absorbed well before Chile nationalized its currency system in 1925.

ABNC's involvement was typical for Latin American private banking paper of this period — Santiago banks regularly contracted New York engravers rather than European firms, partly on cost, partly because ABNC had established strong commercial relationships throughout the region by the 1870s. The S253 prefix flags this as a specialty issue in the Pick system, meaning it circulated regionally rather than as a national instrument.