Description and research notes
This specimen note represents the five hundred pesos denomination of the Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay issued under the monetary law of 2 January 1939, during a period of fully consolidated state-directed banking and currency policy in Uruguay. Produced as an official non-circulating specimen, this note was intended for institutional reference, printer archives, and controlled distribution among government departments, central banking authorities, and international financial correspondents rather than for public monetary use.
By the late 1930s, the Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay functioned as the core institution of the national monetary system, combining commercial banking activity with responsibility for currency issuance, financial regulation, and monetary stability. Within the denomination structure of the 1939 series, the five hundred pesos occupied a high but secondary tier below the one thousand pesos, serving large-scale accounting, treasury transactions, and upper-level commercial settlement rather than everyday circulation. Specimen examples of this denomination document the operational and administrative layer of Uruguay’s monetary system.
The obverse design presents a formal engraved composition characteristic of Thomas De La Rue and Company’s late-interwar intaglio production, with the denomination QUINIENTOS PESOS prominently integrated into an ornate architectural framework. This example is identified as Serie A and bears a controlled all-zero serial format, accompanied by the printed designation SPECIMEN No. 29 at the lower margin, confirming its position within a numbered specimen sequence prepared for institutional control.
Cancellation on the obverse is executed through a printed system combining a bold diagonal red SPECIMEN overprint across the central field with a red oval printer control stamp reading SPECIMEN DE LA RUE – CANCELLED. This layered cancellation method represents a printer-controlled handling protocol designed to render the note permanently non-monetary while preserving full visibility of the engraved design for reference and documentation purposes.
The reverse displays the complete agricultural allegorical scene associated with the five hundred pesos type, symbolizing production, labor, and national economic continuity. Executed at the same engraving standard as circulation notes, the reverse confirms the specimen’s role as a complete reference document rather than a simplified or provisional printing.
Printed by Thomas De La Rue and Company of London, this printed-cancel specimen illustrates the institutional mechanisms through which Uruguay’s issuing bank and its security printer controlled high-value reference material during the late interwar period. It stands as documentary evidence of the administrative practices, production standards, and denomination hierarchy that defined Uruguay’s modern paper currency system.