Puerto Rico · Ministerio de Ultramar
1 Peso · Exchange Note · 1895
Ministerio de Ultramar 1-peso exchange note, created by the royal decree of 17 August 1895 to withdraw foreign silver. Radar serial N.º 4548454, variety P#7b (partial counterfoil).
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P#7b
- Serial number
- N.º 4548454
- Signatures
- Director of Finance (M. Vendrell); Paymaster; Comptroller
- Condition
- Unslabbed, in a sleeve (private collection)
- Printage
- Wikipedia and Documenta & Instrumenta place the issue at five million 1-peso exchange notes (royal decree of 17 August 1895). Each note guaranteed exchange for a provincial peso of 25 g at .900 fineness once struck in Madrid. This record does not invent a printage for variety P#7b or for serial 4548454.
Face
Back
The note
The royal decree of 17 August 1895 authorized this exchange note as a provisional receipt while Mexican and foreign silver — worn macuquina, Morgan dollars, and other outsiders’ coin, much of it fleur-de-lis countermarked from 1884 and withdrawn in 1894 — was removed from the island. Each note guaranteed the bearer a provincial peso of 25 grams at .900 fineness once struck in Madrid (Biography of the Riches of Puerto Rico); the exchange closed in 1896. Notes were delivered in counterfoil books with twin stubs: the exchange official kept the stub when silver was surrendered and the note circulated until provincial pesos arrived. The Ministerio de Ultramar issued a single denomination: 1 peso. The face, black on a yellow underprint, cites Article 1 of the royal decree, reads BILLETE DE CANJE and VALE UN PESO, and carries MINISTERIO DE ULTRAMAR in the vertical margins. At left a circular portrait of a bearded man in a cap — catalogues do not name him with certainty; he is often linked to a conquistador — and at right the dry-seal circle “Canje de Puerto Rico” with a sailing ship. The red serial N.º 4548454 is a palindrome (radar). The signers are the Director of Finance (M. Vendrell), the Paymaster, and the Comptroller. At the foot, R. MAURA and MADRID: Bartolomé Maura y Montaner engraved the lithographic plate for the Madrid press. The back, blue-green on cream, shows the crowned Spanish royal arms, a BILLETE DE CANJE ribbon, 1 PESO, and ULTRAMAR. Residual letters D and UI outside the frame mark the trimmed stub: Pick 7b (partial counterfoil), not 7a with a full stub or 7c with none — even where margins look clean, the leftover letters confirm a partial trim. This collection piece is sleeved and unslabbed.
Scarcity and printage
The type is the only denomination of the 1895 exchange issue (Pick 7; Standard Catalog of World Paper Money). Wikipedia and Documenta & Instrumenta place five million notes; the silver exchange ran about 21 days at some forty-two island locations and the program closed in 1896. Varieties are distinguished by the counterfoil-book stub: full on both sides (7a), partial with visible remnants (7b — this piece: letters D and UI outside the frame, not 7c’s clean margins), or absent with no typographic residue (7c). Serial 4548454 is fancy: it reads the same forwards and backwards. This record does not invent a printage by variety or market values.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for this serial has not been independently verified. The note is shown in original, sleeved, unslabbed condition.
Sources
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Wikipedia — Currencies of Puerto Rico
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Five million 1-peso exchange notes; royal decree of 17 August 1895; exchange closed in 1896.
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Documenta & Instrumenta — Exchange of Mexican currency for the provincial peso (1895–1896)
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Maura y Montaner design; AHN Ultramar 6316 file; five-million print run.
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Numista — Puerto Rico 1 peso P#7 (7a/7b/7c)
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Counterfoil varieties; references the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money.
- Bank Note Museum — Puerto Rico P#7 (7a, 7b, 7c) (opens in a new tab)
- Biography of the Riches of Puerto Rico — exchange note (25 g .900 silver) (opens in a new tab)
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Archivo Histórico Nacional — Document holdings (Ultramar 6316)
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File on Mexican-currency exchange (1895–1896), exp. 4, doc. 8; cited in Documenta & Instrumenta.