Puerto Rico · Ministerio de Ultramar
1 Peso · Exchange Note · 1895
1-peso exchange instrument created by the royal decree of 17 August 1895. Radar serial N.º 4548454, partial-counterfoil variety (P#7b).
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 places the Ministerio de Ultramar issue at five million 1-peso exchange notes (decree of 17 August 1895). 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 created the exchange note to gather Mexican and foreign silver flooding the island and to strike provincial coin in Madrid. The Ministerio de Ultramar issued a single denomination: 1 peso. The face, black on a yellow underprint, reads BILLETE DE CANJE and VALE UN PESO; at left a circular portrait of a bearded man in a cap — catalogues do not name him; he is often described as a conquistador — and at right the watermark circle. 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 plate for the Madrid press. The green back shows the Spanish royal arms, a BILLETE DE CANJE ribbon, and 1 PESO in the right medallion. 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. This collection piece is sleeved and unslabbed.
Scarcity and printage
The type is the only denomination of the 1895 exchange issue (Pick 7). Wikipedia places five million notes to gather foreign silver before the 1895–1896 provincial coin; the exchange closed in 1896. Varieties are distinguished by the stub: full (7a), partial (7b, this piece), or none (7c). Serial 4548454 is fancy: it reads the same forwards and backwards. This record does not invent a printage by variety.
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; decree of 17 August 1895; exchange closed in 1896.
- Bank Note Museum — Puerto Rico (opens in a new tab)
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Wikipedia — Puerto Rican peso
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The situado, 1812–1815 papeletas, the 1869 Central Republican Board, and the 1895 exchange note.
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Documenta & Instrumenta — New findings on nineteenth-century fractional paper money in Puerto Rico
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Documents the 1813–1814 papeletas authorized by Salvador Meléndez Bruna.
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The E-Sylum — Puerto Rican paper money
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Summarizes the situado crisis, the 1812–1813 papeletas, and Ramírez’s amortization by 1816.