Puerto Rico · Ministerio de Ultramar

1 Peso note, 1895

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 of the 1-peso exchange note, radar serial N.º 4548454: MINISTERIO DE ULTRAMAR at the margins, VALE UN PESO, and signatures.

Green-teal back on cream: arms of Spain, ULTRAMAR, BILLETE DE CANJE ribbon, 1 PESO at right, and D / UI counterfoil remnants at the margins.

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silver — worn macuquina, Morgan dollars, and other outsiders’ coin, much of it fleur-de-lis countermarked from 1884 and withdrawn in 1894 — was removed from the island.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.