Chile P110 or P119 5 Pesos ND(1944-59) Very Fine Plus

Chile's classic 5 Peso / ½ Condor note — a long-running series featuring the portrait of liberator Bernardo O'Higgins, issued across more than a decade by two different printers. You will receive one note from this family; the exact variety (P-102, P-110, or P-119) and printer will vary.

Obverse

• Color: blue on multicolor underprint
• Portrait of Bernardo O'Higgins at right
• With or without date above value at center (P-102 has date; P-110 and P-119 do not)
• Printer imprint varies:
  • P-102 / P-110: TALLERES DE ESPECIES VALORADAS — SANTIAGO — CHILE
  • P-119: CASA DE MONEDA DE CHILE
• Varieties: you may receive any variety:
  • P-102 (1944–1947) — with date; Talleres printer; EOM/AMT₁ or MTF/AMT₁
  • P-110 ND(1948–51) — no date; with security thread; MTF/AMT₁
  • P-110 ND(1948–51) — no date; without security thread; HTL/AMT₁
  • P-110 ND(1953–58) — no date; AMT₂/FHL (long signature Maschke)
  • P-110 ND(1953–58) — no date; AMT₃/FHL (short signature Maschke)
  • P-119 ND(1958–59) — no date; Casa de Moneda printer; AMT/FHL or AMT/LMS

Back

• Color: blue
• Small bank seal at right

Other Characteristics

• Catalog numbers: Pick P-102, P-110, P-119; Numista N#205206 (P-102/110), N#394381 (P-119)
• Watermark: Portrait of Diego Portales
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 145 × 70 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Bank of Chile (Banco Central de Chile)
• Printer: Talleres de Especies Valoradas, Santiago (P-102/110) or Casa de Moneda de Chile (P-119)
• Demonetized: 1960 (replaced by the Chilean Escudo at 1,000 Pesos = 1 Escudo)
• Currency: Chilean Peso (1835–1959)

The Liberator on the Last Peso

Bernardo O'Higgins (1778–1842) was the illegitimate son of an Irish-born Spanish colonial governor — a detail that would have scandalized the aristocracy he eventually overthrew. Educated in England and Peru, he returned to Chile and joined the independence movement, fighting alongside José de San Martín at the Battle of Chacabuco (1817), which broke Spanish power in Chile. He became the country's first Supreme Director, declared independence, and then — in a rare act of political self-awareness — resigned in 1823 when his authoritarian tendencies made him deeply unpopular. He died in exile in Peru, never returning to the country he liberated. Chile named everything after him anyway.

The End of the Peso

By the late 1950s, Chile was suffering from chronic inflation — one of the worst in Latin America. The Peso had been devalued so many times that a 5 Peso note, once meaningful, was worth almost nothing. On 1 January 1960, Chile replaced the Peso with the Escudo, cutting three zeros: 1,000 old Pesos became 1 new Escudo. This note — printed across the final decade of the old currency — is a relic of that inflationary era. The Escudo itself would eventually suffer the same fate, replaced by the current Peso in 1975.

About Chile

• Origin of name: Disputed — possibly from the Quechua chili ("where the land ends") or the Mapuche word for the cold Biobío River; the name was in use by the 1530s
  • Origin of name of Santiago: Named by conquistador Pedro de Valdivia in 1541 after Santiago de Compostela, Spain — patron saint James (Santiago) of the Spanish crown
• Capital: Santiago — city pop. ~6.3 million; metro pop. ~8 million
• Population: ~19.6 million (UN 2024) — roughly the size of New York State and Pennsylvania combined
• Area: 756,102 km² (291,933 mi²) — slightly larger than Texas; the world's longest country north to south (~4,300 km)
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$28,000 (IMF 2024) — among the highest in Latin America
• Main exports: copper (world's largest producer), lithium, fruit, wine, fish meal, cellulose
• Borders: Peru (north), Bolivia (northeast), Argentina (east); Pacific Ocean to the west; also claims territory in Antarctica
• Official/spoken languages: Spanish (official); Mapudungun and other indigenous languages spoken by minorities
• Ethnicities: White and Mestizo (~88%), Mapuche (~10%), other indigenous (~2%)
• Memberships: United Nations (founding member, 1945); Organization of American States (founding member, 1948); Pacific Alliance (founding member, 2011); APEC; WTO; OECD (2010)
• Sovereignty: Spanish colonial rule (1540–1818); Independence declared: 12 February 1818; Republic established 1818–date

Chile Unfiltered

• Chile is the world's longest country — stretching 4,300 km from the Atacama Desert in the north to Patagonia and Cape Horn in the south, but averaging only 177 km wide.
• The Atacama Desert is the driest non-polar desert on Earth — some weather stations there have never recorded rainfall. NASA uses it to test Mars rovers.
• Chile produces more copper than any other country — roughly 27% of global supply. Its economy rises and falls with the copper price.
• Chile has more than 2,900 volcanoes, of which around 500 are potentially active — the second-highest concentration in the world after Indonesia.
• The 2010 Copiapó mining accident trapped 33 miners underground for 69 days — all were rescued alive in a globally televised operation that gripped the world.
• Chile was the first country in Latin America to elect a socialist president by democratic vote — Salvador Allende in 1970, overthrown in a US-backed coup in 1973 led by General Augusto Pinochet.
• Easter Island (Rapa Nui), famous for its moai statues, is Chilean territory — located 3,700 km off the coast in the Pacific Ocean.

Own this note and hold the twilight of a currency in your hands — the last years of the Chilean Peso, the liberator who never came home, and a note that outlasted the monetary system that created it.