Paraguay 1907 - 100 Pesos with 1912 State Overprint (Pick 134, Base Pick 159)
The 1912 overprint was not a decorative or routine bank marking. It was an emergency act of monetary authority. Paraguay entered 1912 under severe political and fiscal pressure, with civil unrest, weakened banking confidence, and a shortage of reliable circulating paper. Rather than waiting for an entirely new currency series to be prepared, the government turned to existing Banco de la República stocks and converted them into state-recognized obligations by means of a direct overprint. The oval “Emisión del Estado” stamp announced that the note was no longer merely an earlier bank issue, but had been accepted into the emergency monetary structure of the state. Read more →