Description and research notes
A fully issued Serie A example of the Banco de Zaragoza 100 reales vellón dated 1 May 1857, serial number 23322. This is a true issued banknote classified as Pick S451b, not a remainder or specimen. Issued Zaragoza notes from 1857 are among the rarest Spanish provincial banknotes, with only two S451b examples recorded by PMG to date and very few known in private or institutional collections.
The Banco de Zaragoza was founded in 1857 under the liberal banking reforms of the Law of January 28, 1856, which briefly allowed numerous regional banks to issue their own currency. Operating only until 1874, when all private-issue banks were absorbed into the Banco de España, the bank produced a small and tightly structured series of reales de vellón notes. Its denomination system was tied directly to series lettering: Serie A = 100 reales, Serie B = 200 reales, Serie C = 500 reales, Serie D = 1000 reales, Serie E = 2000 reales, Serie F = 4000 reales. Because issued notes were aggressively redeemed and destroyed during the national consolidation, genuine circulation survivors are exceptionally scarce.
Pick S451b denotes the fully signed circulation form of this emission. Nearly all issued notes from Banco de Zaragoza were redeemed and destroyed during the monetary reforms and centralisation of the 1870s, leaving an extremely small number of survivors. This note, with full signatures and strong detail, likely belongs to a group of fewer than five to ten existing issued examples.
Its engraving matches the S451s full-sheet specimen: Madrid-school borders, decorative acanthus elements, and a formal promise payable in Zaragoza. Serial number 23322 places it within the same emission batch as the specimen full sheet (Serie A No. 23327) also in the collection (see item 'spain-1857-banco-de-zaragoza-100-reales-serie-a-23327-specimen-full-sheet'). Together they form a complete archival and circulation pair.
As a rare issued note preserved in clean condition with full manuscript signatures, this example ranks at R8 rarity, representing one of Spain’s scarcest mid-19th-century provincial banknote issues.