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Auction: CSS73C - Banknotes, Bonds & Shares and Coins of China and Hong Kong
Lot: 5068

Bolivia: Banco Industrial de La Paz, a group of '00001' notes from the series of 1.6.1900, consisting of 1, 5, 20, 50 and 100 Bolivianos, The Banco Industrial de La Paz was founded in 1900 with a capital of 1 million Bolivianos. This is a gold bank.
Banknotes were soon authorized in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100. These notes were ordered from the American Bank Note Company in New York.
The Bank was permitted to issue notes up to 1 million, i.e. up to the cash amount of its capital of 1 million Bolivianos as stored in its vaults. In other words 100% coverage.
In 1905 the Bank was renamed the Banco Industrial.
In 1906 and 1907 notes in the amount of 1 Boliviano and 5 Bolivianos were ordered and issued with the new bank name.
In 1914 the Bank was liquidated due to the founding of the new National Bank of Bolivia as a central bank. The National Bank was to be the only bank to have the right of issue.
The National Bank took over the outstanding issue of the Banco Industrial, and clearly paid essentially all of the outstanding notes of the Bank.
Note that in the first title of the Bank notes were issued up to 100 Bolivianos. However, in the second title of the Bank apparently there was only a short issue of notes in the 1 Boliviano and 5 Bolivianos denominations.
Details of the Bank and in particular their banknote issues can be seen in the website Bolivia Numismatica (https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbolivianumismatica.blogspot.com%2F2019%2F01%2Fy-bancos-privados-viii-banco-industrial.html%3Fm%3D0&data=04%7C01%7C%7C97749ade06d641681d4008d9bd2dfb23%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637748827445115030%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=YHTFUoRied9vW5db%2F65GovwFZmVl8K9rdVYeg3GXuL4%3D&reserved=0).
Fortunately, at the Bank's opening ceremony in 1900, the Number 1 of each denomination was saved.
The first notes were hand-signed by the officials of the Bank. It is likely that the first note of each denomination was issued to the founder, who would have paid cash for it, or the face value was charged to his account. Then he handed the notes in for redemption. Each note was cancelled by hand, and he was refunded his investment of face value of each note, either in cash or by a credit to his account. The cancelled set was then presented to him as a souvenir of the occasion!
Without this ceremony taking place, there would only be a tiny handful of notes surviving from this bank in issued form, namely at least four pieces of Banco Industrial de La Paz 1 Boliviano (including the serial No. 1), as well as the following.
Number of notes of the Banco Industrial de La Paz, according to PMG Census:
1 Boliviano: 4, including the Serial No.1.
5 Bolivianos: 1 piece, the unique Serial No.1.
10 Bolivianos: none.
20 Bolivianos: 1 piece, the unique Serial No.1.
50 Bolivianos: 1 piece, the unique Serial No.1.
100 Bolivianos: 1 piece, the unique Serial No.1.
It is not known what happened to the 10 Bolivianos #1. Whether the notes were shipped separately for security and the shipment of 10 Bolivianos arrived after the ceremony is not presently known.
It is the author's recollection that one piece of 10 Bolivianos in poor condition survived, but at present the author does not have the details.
Accordingly, of issued notes, this set represents four of the five denominations known to have survived, of which four are the only survivors.
The notes are glorious, have brilliant colours just as printed, and as Number Ones have a special interest to all collectors.
Along with these few issued survivors, since 1990 in the American Bank Note Archive Sale, we can count proof notes and specimen notes of both the Banco Industrial de La Paz and the Banco Industrial in the denominations listed above. These specimens occasionally come on the market and are not to be confused with the unique issued notes.
It should be noted that the issued note illustrated in the online catalogue of this bank cited above are all the same Number Ones that appear here.

(Pick S151a, S152a, S154, S156), graded PMG AU 55, AU 55, AU 53, AU 50 and XF 40 respectively. Each note has the comment 'With presentation annotation, cancelled). The 1 Bol one of four notes in the PMG population and by far the highest grade as the other three have been graded '20'. The 5, 20, 50 and 100 Bol are the only notes in the PMG population report. A set of historical significance and unique (5)


1900年玻利維亞拉巴斯興業銀行一套5枚， 1, 5, 20, 50 及 100玻利維亞諾幣，均為000001編號，乃銀行開業當天展出之精裝套裝，獨缺10玻利維亞諾幣，應為當時派送延誤所致，本版別甚其稀見，尤其高面值更罕，分別評PMG AU 55, AU 55, AU 53, AU 50 及 XF 40，每枚均標註「有書寫，注銷」，PMG記錄中有4項1諾幣記錄，本品為最高分，其餘3枚評PMG 20，其餘面值均為PMG記錄中唯一之一枚，深具歷史價值之一組珍品

Estimate
HK$580,000 to HK$800,000

Starting price
HK$580000