250 Pesetas. January 1, 1878. Proof without front and back numbering. (Edifil 2021: 279). Very rare, only the cardboard proof is known of this bill, it was never printed. Almost Uncirculated.
PS: We thank Ramón Cobo for his correction in this description where he rectifies the information given by the Edifil catalogue, which indicates that the bill was never produced, and that in turn it was our erroneous source of information.
Two copies are known, one sold publicly in 2008 and drilled and another belonging to the collection of the Bank of Spain with the word Inutilado microdrilled and a stamp on the back of the Bank of Spain branch in Valencia, the latter can be found photographed in the book The Banknotes of the Bank of Spain published in 1974.
The law on issuing banks of 1856 authorized the putting into circulation of banknotes, modifying the minimum value from the 500 reales that had been approved on previous occasions to 100 reales, while maintaining the traditional value of 4,000 reales as the upper limit. When the peseta was established as the official currency and the Bank of Spain saw fit to issue it in that currency (which was not immediately), the denominations of the banknotes underwent a transformation due to the equivalences between reales and pesetas. The first issue in pesetas was in 1874, which was not put into circulation until the following year. From that series, the classic values of 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 pesetas were adopted, the result of the equivalence of the reales values of many banknotes, but not all. The 500- reales bill became the 100-peseta bill, of slightly lower value, and the equivalent of the 1,000- reales ceased to exist.
This was the case, in general terms, in all issues except that of 1878, whose series, like that of 1880, would lack the lower value of 25 pesetas. But in the 1878 issue, an additional determination was made that resulted in a strange bill: giving equivalence to the 1,000 reales with a 250 peseta bill, an atypical value, but which had a certain logic with a decimal-based sequence of bills that began in 25. The Bank had two orders abroad (1875 to the United Kingdom and 1876 to the United States) and perhaps they wanted to give a touch of originality to their product. It is possible, given the quantities printed, that this banknote was produced in an attempt to compensate for a smaller circulation of high denomination banknotes, which were rarely used in the 19th century, or as a precaution to avoid having to put those into circulation for a time. In any case, this 250 peseta note from 1878 was put into the hands of the public in 1880 and coexisted with many others from previous and later issues during its short life.
But beyond this curious denomination (unique in the entire Spanish billet), the relevance of the specimen offered is even greater. If the note issued is extraordinarily rare, one of the most common among Spanish Notafilias, finding what appears to be proof is no less so, given the superlative quality of the copy and the clarity of the printing. The engravings on this banknote were directed by Federico Navarrete and the paper comes from the Bank's first order from the Zaragoza producer based in Madrid, Pedro Nolasco Oseñalde.
As a curiosity, this series is signed by José Elduayen as Governor of the Bank of Spain. Elduayen had been Minister of Finance and a firm opponent of the national expansion of banknotes by the Bank of Spain. To put this banknote in more context, we find ourselves in a year in which the Banco de Bilbao's last signs of resistance were being given to maintain the right to issue banknotes. It is also the time of the establishment of branches of the Bank of Spain in Reus and Tarragona after the creation of the first headquarters during the merger process of the provincial banks.
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