50 Bolivianos

Banco del Comercio was one of several Bolivian private banks authorized to issue notes under the 1890 banking law, which permitted commercial institutions to circulate paper money backed by gold and silver reserves held under government supervision. The arrangement was short-lived. A sweeping monetary reform in 1911 transferred all note-issuing authority to the newly established Banco de la Nación Boliviana, effectively rendering private bank paper obsolete overnight.

Bradbury, Wilkinson's engraved work for South American clients during this period is generally crisp and technically accomplished. Notes from this series that survived did so largely unspent — Bolivia's rural economy remained heavily coin-dependent, and high-denomination paper rarely left the commercial centers of La Paz and Oruro.