19 | Spanish Banknotes

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100 Pesetas. December 1, 1908. Not Issued. Without series, with numbering, drilled "UNUSED". (Edifil 2021: NE15, Pick: 68). Extraordinarily rare. EBC++. Encapsulated PMG58 (to give us an idea of ​​the rarity, as of March 1, 2024, this bill is the highest rated along with another bill in PMG).

With the Banknote Manufacturing Section almost mortally wounded after the resignation of technical chief Luis Marín, the Bank of Spain turned to the English printer Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. to manufacture its banknotes. Meanwhile, the Section set to work trying to produce a complete series of banknotes, probably with the intention of regaining the Council's confidence in case the order from England ended in fiasco.

Work had already been done in the workshops on the issuance of the 50 pesetas of 1902, the 100 and 500 pesetas of 1903, the 25 pesetas of 1904, and the 50 pesetas of 1905, whose continuation was the 1,000 pesetas of May 1907, which They were the only product of the workshop that was made public after the contract with Bradbury. They then decided to evolve the style, so different from the 1903 and 1904 banknotes, with the idea of ​​generating modern and functional designs, although they maintained many of the defects of the 19th century banknotes. Vaquer's extraordinary work with the 1,000 peseta bill continued with proofs of 25 pesetas from 1908 that never saw the light of day, but whose engravings are fantastic.

The 100 peseta bill of 1908 was engraved by Bartolomé Maura, the swan song of the brilliant Mallorcan. And although the design of the reverse reminds us of Maura's style from the late 19th century, the organization of the obverse and its dimensions have more similarities with Vaquer's “Angel.” This issue was agreed upon practically at the same time that Bradbury's request was given the starting signal, so it is reasonable to think that the Bank wanted it as a reserve or simply to give its failing department one more chance. At that time it was not clear that the agreement with the English would last that long, so the move seems logical within the general situation of the Bank.

The French paper from Perrigot-Masure purchased for the General Plan was used for its manufacture, the design was developed, printed and even numbered this banknote. But, surely due to the great result of the issuance of 100 pesetas in 1906, they were kept and did not enter circulation. The Bank had been delighted with Bradbury's agility and quality (the percentage of counterfeits plummeted) and long before Maura's note was ready it had already required a reserve issue from the English, that of 1907. The result was that the 1906-1907 issue remained in circulation for almost two decades and by then the Bank was already clear that the 1907 issue was worth it and was more modern than the one produced by Maura and Vaquer, so the projects and banknotes did not issued were discarded. Why the 1,000-peseta “Angel” did see the light of day in the 1920s and not this 100-peseta bill is not known, although it is related to the fact that Bradbury's order for 1906-1907 did not include a thousand-peseta bill. and with the putting into circulation of the July 1907 one along with the bills dated 1906. What is known, in any case, is that the issue was destroyed and that, with the Governor's signature and numbering, only a few bills remained. of “souvenir” that were rendered useless with a point drill. The specimen from the Bank of Spain collection is 2693000. In total, only a dozen are preserved, all of them correlative, although they are never usually seen for sale, which makes them one of the greatest objects of desire for any collector. of Spanish banknotes.