500 Pesos

The República de Chile issued this high-denomination note during a period of acute monetary instability driven by the country's inconvertibility crisis — Chile had suspended gold convertibility in 1878 and never fully restored it, leaving paper circulation chronically overextended into the early twentieth century. A 500 Peso note in this environment was a serious instrument, not pocket money; it circulated among merchants, exporters, and institutions conducting the kind of business the nitrate trade generated.

ABNC produced the series in New York under contract, as they did for most of Chile's formal banknote output in this period. The engraved intaglio work is characteristic of their best commercial quality for South American government clients.