Description and research notes
This engraved vignette die proof was produced by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., London, for the Banco de San Juan 1 Peso Fuerte issue of 1876. The vignette depicts a large bird of prey standing before a mountainous landscape, enclosed within an oval composition. The same engraving appears at the left of the completed Banco de San Juan banknote, where it forms the principal pictorial element of the design.
The proof bears the imprint "BRADBURY, WILKINSON & CO LD ENGRAVERS, LONDON" beneath the image together with die number 203. It was printed separately from the completed banknote design, preserving the engraved vignette as an individual production component before its incorporation into the composite printing plate.
Vignette dies formed an important part of nineteenth-century security-printing production. Individual pictorial elements were engraved and proofed separately, allowing the printer to examine line quality, tonal depth, detail and overall appearance before combining them with borders, lettering, denomination devices and other elements of the finished banknote. This proof therefore documents an intermediate stage between the original engraving work and the completed Banco de San Juan note.
In the finished 1 Peso Fuerte design, the vignette was incorporated into the large ornamental panel at left, surrounded by denomination counters and the elaborate geometric framework characteristic of Bradbury Wilkinson's nineteenth-century banknote work. The completed note identifies El Banco de San Juan prominently across the center, with "UN PESO FUERTE" repeated within the principal denomination panels and the Bradbury Wilkinson imprint along the lower margin.
The corresponding Banco de San Juan specimen is dated 1876 and cataloged as Pick S1880s. It carries serial number D 030001 and a perforated SPECIMEN / BW&Co cancellation. The presence of the same engraved vignette on the completed specimen provides a direct production connection between die number 203 and the final banknote composition.
Together, the vignette die proof and the completed specimen document two distinct stages in the production of the same Banco de San Juan issue: the separately prepared pictorial engraving and its subsequent incorporation into the finished security-printed instrument.
