Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
50 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco Español de la Habana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1889 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Pre-Republic (1870-1898) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A large guilloche-framed numeral '50' anchors the left side, while to the right a detailed intaglio vignette portrays a standing Spaniard in colonial dress alongside a seated Native Indian figure with a coat of arms below. The central text block carries the bearer clause and denomination in letterpress, with a red serial number printed above; the imprint 'American Bank Note Co. New York' appears at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in a rose-red tone and centers on a vignette of the Noble Havana fountain (La Fuente de la India), rendered with fine intaglio detail showing the sculptural monument set against a landscaped background with figures at its base. Two large ornate guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral '50' flank the central vignette symmetrically. The issuer's name frames the top and bottom margins, with the printer's imprint at the lower center. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banco Español de la Habana was the sole bank of issue in colonial Cuba, operating under a royal charter that gave it a monopoly tightly controlled from Madrid. By 1889, that arrangement was already under strain — Cuban nationalist sentiment was building toward what would become the Ten Years' War's long aftermath, and the bank's notes circulated in an economy distorted by the sugar trade and Spanish fiscal extraction.
The American Bank Note Company handled the printing, as it did for much of Latin American paper currency in this period. The choice reflected the ABNC's dominance of the market, not any particular political alignment with the United States.