Description and research notes
An extraordinarily rare issued 2000 reales vellón banknote from the Banco de Zaragoza dated 14 May 1857, Serie E, serial number 00589. Classified as Pick S455, this note represents the highest denomination placed into active circulation by the bank. Very few issued examples of any Banco de Zaragoza notes survive, and among these, the 2000 reales denomination is one of the most elusive.
The Banco de Zaragoza operated under Spain’s brief liberalised banking window (1856–1874), during which private banks were permitted to print circulating currency. Its emissions followed a clear structural hierarchy of reales de vellón denominations: Serie A = 100 reales, Serie B = 200 reales, Serie C = 500 reales, Serie D = 1000 reales, Serie E = 2000 reales, Serie F = 4000 reales. Of these, Series D, E, and F survive only in microscopic numbers; most were redeemed and destroyed following the centralisation of currency issuance under the Banco de España.
Few issued Serie E notes are known. The surviving population is best measured by direct observation rather than catalog assumptions. Only a tiny number of fully signed, circulation-authorized 2000 reales vellón notes have been documented. This note (No. 00589) is one of just two examples currently held in the collection—the other being serial No. 00500—and it pairs with that companion piece to form what is likely the strongest private holding of issued 2000 reales vellón worldwide.
The note retains full manuscript signatures of the Comisario Regio, Director, Interventor, and Cajero, and displays the characteristic circular cancellation punch used to invalidate high-denomination Zaragoza issues after redemption. Despite circulation wear, the engraving remains strong and unmistakably tied to the Madrid-school style that defines Zaragoza’s 1857 series.
True issued examples of Pick S455 are exceptionally rare, and no meaningful number appears in Spanish auction archives over the past several decades. Based on observed survivors (including both pieces in this collection), this note qualifies as R8—an extremely rare, institution-level artifact of Spain’s provincial banking era.