13 | Spanish Banknotes

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100 Pesetas. July 1, 1903. No series. (Edifil 2023: 310, Pick: 53). Very rare, especially unrepaired. Encapsulated in PMG35. (To give an idea of the rarity, as of November 1, 2024, this note is the third highest graded, along with two other notes in PMG).

The so-called "General Plan for Banknotes" of the Bank of Spain of November 1902 proposed the development of a series of banknotes with a common, original style and dimensional logic, definitively banishing the use of matrices and tarlatana, something that was already happening with the first banknote of that time, the fifty pesetas by Velázquez. But unlike this banknote, from a design perspective, the drawings were not to be inspired by well-known works of art, as a further measure to reduce the likelihood of counterfeiting. Once this policy of innovation was accepted in early 1903, the design was commissioned to José Villegas Cordero, a renowned artist and then director of the Prado Museum at the time. The Sevillian's designs for these first 20th-century issues, especially those of 1903 and 1904, are surprisingly simple, monochromatic, and very far from his pictorial style and costumbrista themes. The poor technical quality so disappointed the Bank of Spain that the 1904 issue did not even circulate.

These 100-peseta banknotes from 1903, which allegorically depict the crucial role of the Bank of Spain in the country's development and industrial progress, entered circulation in October 1904 and were counterfeited by early 1905. This, along with the resignation of Luis Marín, technical head of the Bank of Spain's banknote-making workshop, led to the hiring of Bradbury & Wilkinson to definitively turn around the institution's fight against counterfeiting. However, this banknote is not all simplicity. This is the first appearance of silk fibrils in Spanish banknotes, an invention that would remain in use until the mid-20th century. This paper originates in France, from the Perrigot-Masure factory, whose factory was located next to the Moselle River in the commune of Arches, in the province of Lorraine. As a curiosity, the director of that house, Jules Perrigot, was passionate about cars, and he was responsible for the first traffic codes and a precursor to the driving test, right at the same time that this banknote was put into circulation, a failed attempt to modernize paper money and, at the same time, a jewel of Spanish notaphily due to its different design and rarity.