Description and research notes
This Serie B five hundred pesos specimen is distinguished by the deliberate restraint of its cancellation system. Identified as Specimen No. 45, it carries the completed design of the Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay issue together with a single localized red oval SPECIMEN DE LA RUE CANCELLED stamp on the face. The absence of a large diagonal overprint allows the engraved composition to remain unusually open and visually intact.
Serie B is clearly stated on the obverse and paired with an all-zero serial arrangement. These elements reproduce the organizational structure of circulation currency while preserving the note as a controlled institutional example. The printed Specimen No. 45 inscription at the lower margin provides an individual reference identity, showing that the piece belonged to a numbered sequence rather than serving as an unrecorded production sample.
The face is structured around the large QUINIENTOS PESOS denomination, presented within a formal architectural framework of columns, scrollwork, patterned borders, and fine security backgrounds. The name of the Republica Oriental del Uruguay spans the upper register, placing state authority above the central value statement. The composition is disciplined and symmetrical, but the open watermark oval at left and the portrait at right create a controlled visual contrast across the sheet.
The right-hand vignette combines portrait engraving with an industrial setting, reflecting the language of progress and productive capacity that shaped the issue. Fine parallel and crosshatched lines create volume, texture, and tonal depth, while the surrounding machinery and architectural forms connect the human figure with the modernization of Uruguay's economy. The vignette therefore functions as both portraiture and economic symbolism.
The oval printer stamp is placed low on the obverse, away from the most important portrait and denomination elements. This placement appears calculated to assert cancellation authority without dominating the note. The reverse was left free from additional specimen markings, preserving the agricultural scene in its complete printed form. Together, these choices define a specimen protocol based on minimal intervention rather than repeated cancellation across both surfaces.
The reverse composition presents a broad vision of agricultural production, with workers, livestock, open land, and distant development joined within a single engraved scene. It represents the rural foundation of the national economy and provides a thematic counterpart to the industrial imagery of the obverse. The two sides therefore create a wider portrait of Uruguay's productive identity, balancing agriculture and modernization within the same high-denomination instrument.
Certified Paper Money Guaranty 64, this Specimen No. 45 preserves the sharp engraving and composed visual structure needed to study the Serie B design at production standard. Its localized cancellation, numbered identity, and unmarked reverse make it a particularly clear record of one of the specimen-handling formats used by Thomas De La Rue and Company Limited for Uruguay's 1939 five hundred pesos issue.