Description and research notes
Matched front and back printer’s proofs attributed to the American Bank Note Company, both graded PMG 63. These proofs were prepared as final design studies before mass production, allowing the printer and issuing bank to review alignment, color, and engraving detail prior to signature placement or numbering.
The 5 Bolivianos design reflects Bolivia’s early 20th-century drive to modernize its financial infrastructure following the Federal Revolution of 1899. The Banco Agrícola, oriented toward agricultural and land credit, represented an effort to stabilize rural development through access to formal capital. ABNC’s involvement underscored Bolivia’s reliance on North American engraving expertise, with complex guilloche, detailed vignettes, and secure tinting techniques that echoed international standards of the period.
Proof pairs rarely survive together. Most archival pulls were separated by face and reverse or dispersed through specimen collections. This set preserves the complete visual language intended by ABNC—borders, counters, lathe-work, and ornamental tints—before any administrative markings were added. The imprint 'American Bank Note Co. New York' remains crisp at the margin, confirming its origin as a true archival strike.
Holding both sides in equal preservation offers an uncommon educational view of ABNC’s workflow: artistry balanced with precision. Together they document how Bolivia’s early 1900s paper currency combined national imagery with the engraving craft that linked Latin America to New York’s printing houses.