AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY PARAGUAY ALBUM

AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY
Album of 101 banknote specimens and proofs, representing the entire range of the company's production on behalf of banks in Paraguay from 1882 through 1940; bank notes mounted on loose manila office binder sheets, with typed production notes.

Most banknotes in exceptional condition, some with minor evidence of staining caused by adhesive bleed through.

By the early twentieth century the American Bank Note Company had become the largest producer of bank notes in the world, producing currency for a large number of countries. When the company sought to organize its records and archives, each country was given a file, and each file ended up in mundane office binders organized alphabetically. Thus Paraguay comprised a small part of the binder "P", a relatively minor bit of real estate on an entire wall of records.

When the American Bank Note Company dispersed its archives (a process which began in the 1970s and continued for over twenty-five years—Christies' catalogues of the first of these sales being themselves now scarce and valuable reference works), virtually all of the country binders were split up, with collectors vying for examples of notes which were, in many cases and as here, to be found nowhere else. The Paraguay album at hand is, to the best of our knowledge, the only country album from the company to remain intact, a happy accident caused by its having been bundled into a plain envelope after its initial purchase and subsequently forgotten for many years until rediscovered by chance as part of a bulk transaction.

In many parts of the world, and in Latin America in particular, bank note companies American and European vied intensely for production contracts. In Paraguay, the American Bank Note Company gained inroads atop a wave of pro-American sentiment. Paraguay is likely the only place in the world where President Rutherford B Hayes is remembered fondly (or perhaps even at all)—Hayes (pronounced AH-jes) is commemorated in Paraguay by monuments, avenues and plazas as a result of his adjudication of a border dispute in Paraguay's favor.

That the result of the initial agreements was felicitous can readily be seen from the album at hand, and the American Bank Note Company was able to place Paraguayan currency on a solid (and occasionally magnificent) artistic footing. Paraguayan currency in its infancy (in the 1850s) had been fairly simple in design, with only occasional woodcuts as graphic elements amidst functional and largely inelegant typography. But, the rapid growth of a modern economy necessitated modern (and secure) currency, which factors of civic and banking pride augmented—

Paraguay got some of the very best engraving which the American Bank Note Company was able to offer— portraits, scenic vignettes, exquisite and exuberant lathe work, the most fashionable of typography and design, striking tints and even dramatic rainbow printing. Taken as an ensemble, the result is remarkable. and a graphic reminder of how far standards have fallen.

See particularly: Griffiths, William The Story of the American Bank Note Company New York 1959

Pratt Mayans, Miguel Angel and Pusineri Scala, Carlos Alberto Billetes de Paraguay Asuncion 1990

And for general context:
Fernandez, Pedro Analisis de la Historia Bancaria y Monetaria del Paraguay Asuncion 1982/1984

To view a photo album with more images on our Flickr archive, see:
ABNCO Paraguay Album (https://www.flickr.com/photos/coinbooks/albums/72157716233737503)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web