50 Bolívares

Banco de Venezuela was a private commercial bank granted note-issuing privileges by the Venezuelan government — one of several competing issuing institutions operating in the country before the Banco Central de Venezuela was established in 1940. The American Bank Note Company held the printing contract for much of this private-era Venezuelan paper, and the quality of engraving reflects ABNC's high-end commercial work of the 1890s.

The 1897 date places this note squarely within the long authoritarian presidency of Joaquín Crespo, a period of relative monetary stability compared to the chaos that followed under Cipriano Castro after 1899. Notes from private Venezuelan issuers of this decade are genuinely scarce in any condition — survival rates were low, and the eventual centralization of currency drove most examples out of circulation and into destruction.