Description and research notes
Issued 1 Peso Fuerte note of Banco Domingo Garbino, printed by the American Bank Note Company (Compañía Americana de Billetes de Banco Nueva York) and formally activated for circulation through the large vertical red overprint “DOMINGO GARBINO.” This overprint was the legal validation required to convert remainder stock (Pick S1791) into fully issued, signed, numbered, and payable currency. Pick S1802 represents the only surviving issued form of the Garbino 1 Peso denomination.
The base design reflects ABNC’s late 1860s export engraving style. A central horse-head vignette symbolizes frontier strength and regional commerce, flanked by a youthful female portrait at left and an industrial allegorical vignette at right. Blue underprint denomination panels reinforce anti-counterfeiting security, while ornate border engraving demonstrates the precision typical of American Bank Note Company production for provincial Latin American banks.
Banco Domingo Garbino operated within Argentina’s fragmented provincial monetary environment following national reorganization. Small regional banks relied on metallic-convertible fiduciary issues to support agricultural and freight commerce. Subsequent monetary consolidations and cancellations in the late nineteenth century resulted in the destruction of most issued provincial paper.
Unsigned and unnumbered remainder examples of the base 1 Peso type (Pick S1791r) survive in limited quantities, but no issued examples without the validating red overprint are known. Every legally emitted Garbino 1 Peso currently documented exists only in the overprint configuration cataloged as Pick S1802.
This PMG 63 EPQ example, featuring sharp signatures, strong blue underprint detail, and a bold, intact overprint, represents a high-grade survivor of Argentina’s transitional provincial banking period and documents the formal mechanism by which remainder inventory was converted into circulating legal currency.