Peru P132 or P133 100 Intis 1985-1987 UNC—From Slave to President—Cotton

Peru's 100-inti note honors a man who rose from slavery to the presidency — three times — and pairs him with a woman operating an industrial cotton spinning machine, a quiet nod to the economy he helped modernize.

Front

• Colors:
  • Salmon/rose-pink background; dark brown/maroon engraving on portrait and coat of arms; orange-red right border panel; black serial number
• Portrait: Ramón Castilla, right side
• Center: Peruvian coat of arms
• Issuer name: BANCO CENTRAL de RESERVA del PERÚ across top
• Denomination: "100" both right corners and below arms; "CIEN INTIS" at bottom
• Signatures: Varies by date — see Other Characteristics below

Back

• Colors:
  • Tan/beige background; dark brown/black engraving on spinning machine scene; orange-red pre-Columbian decorative motifs right side; orange "100" rosette top right
• Scene: Woman operating an industrial ring spinning machine with large cotton bobbins in foreground
• Issuer name: BANCO CENTRAL DE RESERVA DEL PERÚ across top
• Denomination: "100" lower left and top right; "CIEN INTIS" at bottom center
• Printer imprint: BUNDESDRUCKEREI, lower left (P133 only)

Other Characteristics

• Varieties: You may receive any variety:
  • P132a / TBB B470a — 1985-Feb-01, Casa da Moeda do Brasil; Sigs: Richard Charles Webb Duarte (Pres.), Carlos Morales Macchiavello (Dir.), Héctor Neyra Chavarry (Gen. Mgr.)
  • P132a / TBB B470b — 1985-Mar-01, Casa da Moeda do Brasil; Sigs: Richard Charles Webb Duarte (Pres.), Felipe Cebrecos Revilla (Dir.), Héctor Neyra Chavarry (Gen. Mgr.)
  • P132b / TBB B470c — 1986-Mar-06, Casa da Moeda do Brasil; Sigs: Leonel Figueroa Ramírez (Pres.), Carlos Capuñay Mimbela (Dir.), Héctor Neyra Chavarry (Gen. Mgr.)
  • P133a / TBB B471a — 1987-Jun-26, Bundesdruckerei; Sigs: Carlos Capuñay Mimbela (Pres.), Luis Guiulfo Zender (Dir.), César Farrari Quiñe (Gen. Mgr.)
• Catalog numbers: P132 / P133; TBB B470 / B471; Numista N#203274
• Watermark: Ramón Castilla
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 150 × 75 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Reserve Bank of Peru (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú)
• Printers: Casa da Moeda do Brasil (P132) · Bundesdruckerei, Berlin (P133)
• Demonetized: 1 July 1991
• Currency: Inti (1985–1991)

From Slave to President — Three Times

Ramón Castilla y Marquesado (1797–1867) had one of the most improbable careers in Latin American history. Born in what is now Chile to a family of mixed heritage, he was enslaved as a young man — captured during the wars of independence and held in Argentina. He escaped, returned to Peru, and rose through the military ranks to become the country's dominant political figure of the mid-19th century, serving as president three times (1845–1851, 1855–1862, and briefly in 1863). His most consequential act: in 1854 he issued two decrees abolishing African slavery and ending the indigenous head tax — transformative reforms that reshaped Peruvian society. He funded these reforms with revenue from guano exports, turning seabird droppings into one of the 19th century's most valuable commodities. A caudillo in the truest sense — strongman, reformer, survivor.

The Woman at the Spinning Machine

The reverse depicts a female textile worker operating a ring spinning frame — the industrial backbone of Peru's cotton processing industry. By the 1980s, Peru's textile sector was one of its largest employers, built on the famous Pima cotton of the northern coast. The large bobbins of spun thread in the foreground represent the transformation of raw cotton into export-ready yarn — a quiet counterpoint to the field workers on the 10-inti note. Together, the Inti series tells the full story of Peruvian cotton: from field to factory.

The Inti's Brief, Chaotic Life

The Inti replaced the sol at 1,000:1 in 1985 — already a sign of the inflation ravaging Peru. By 1990, annual inflation hit 7,649%. The Inti was replaced by the nuevo sol in 1991 at 1,000,000:1. This 100-inti note, worth fractions of a U.S. cent at demonetization, is now a vivid artifact of one of Latin America's most dramatic economic collapses.

About Peru

• Origin of name: Likely derived from Birú, the name of a local ruler or river encountered by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century; the name was gradually applied to the entire region
• Capital: Lima (city pop. ~10 million; metro pop. ~11 million)
  • Origin of name of Lima: From Limaq, a Quechua word meaning “talker” or “speaker,” referring to an oracle at the site
• Population: ~34 million (UN 2024) — comparable to California
• Area: 1,285,216 km² (496,225 mi²) — comparable to Alaska or France + Spain + Germany
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$16,000 (IMF 2024)
• Main exports: Copper, gold, zinc, fishmeal, coffee, asparagus, textiles
• Borders: Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile; Pacific Ocean to the west
• Official/spoken languages: Spanish (official); Quechua and Aymara (co-official); dozens of Amazonian languages
• Ethnicities: Mestizo (~60%); Amerindian (~26%); White Peruvian (~6%); Afro-Peruvian and other (~8%)
• Memberships: UN (founding member, 1945); OAS (1948); Andean Community (founding member, 1969, hosts secretariat in Lima); APEC (1998); Pacific Alliance (founding member, 2011)
• Sovereignty: Viceroyalty of Peru (1542–1821); Independence declared 28 July 1821; Republic of Peru (1821–date)

Peru Unfiltered

• Guano boom: In the 1850s–60s, Peru earned more from seabird droppings than most countries earned from gold — Castilla spent it wisely, then it ran out
• Slavery abolished 1854: Castilla freed Peru's enslaved population 9 years before Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
• Hyperinflation record: Peru's 1990 inflation of 7,649% remains one of the worst in Latin American history
• Biodiversity: Peru contains ~10% of all species on Earth and is one of only 17 megadiverse countries
• Potato origin: The potato was domesticated in Peru ~8,000 years ago — the world owes its french fries to the Andes
• Shining Path: The Maoist insurgency (1980–2000) killed an estimated 70,000 people — the bloodiest internal conflict in South American history
• Nazca Lines: Enormous geoglyphs etched into the desert, some over 2,000 years old, still not fully explained
• Pisco war: Peru and Chile have an ongoing diplomatic dispute over which country invented pisco — both claim it fiercely

Own this note and hold a piece of Peru's most unlikely story — a man who went from enslaved prisoner to three-time president, abolished slavery, and funded it all with bird droppings, on a note that itself became worthless within six years.