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50 Dollars William Walker Military Script
| Issuer | Republic of Nicaragua (William Walker Administration) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | El Nicaraguense Print |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Typeset military script certificate on soft paper with a guilloche-bordered frame and vertical side panels bearing repeated 'FIFTY DOLLARS' and 'MILITARY SCRIPT' legends. Central text authorizes payment for military services rendered to the State, with the Great Seal of the Republic at lower center and a manuscript date of September 1856. Signed by the Minister of Hacienda and countersigned by Wm. Walker as President of the Republic. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Signature(s) | Wm. Walker (President of the Republic) and Minister of Hacienda |
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| Comments |
William Walker, the Tennessee-born filibuster who seized control of Nicaragua in 1856 and had himself elected president, needed a functioning treasury almost immediately. This script was printed by El Nicaraguense, the English-language newspaper Walker's regime operated out of Granada — the same press used to publish his administration's propaganda and official decrees. Using a newspaper print shop to produce currency was not ideological: it was simply the only press available to him.
Walker's government lasted less than a year. A coalition of Central American armies, backed partly by Cornelius Vanderbilt — whom Walker had made the catastrophic mistake of alienating — drove him from power in 1857. Surviving examples of this script are rare precisely because the issuing authority collapsed so quickly.