HAWAIIAN GAUCHOS
Posted October, 2000
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A few weeks back, I acquired for a few pesos a not very old
catalog (1978) that was about Hawaiian money (Hawaiian Money
Standard Catalog), and in its first pages a $10 banknote from the
Kingdom of Hawaii (1879/1897) with a central vignette surprised me.
I knew it from somewhere before. The explanation talked about a
cowboy who was lassoing cows. This native "cowboy" is, without the
place being in doubt, a gaucho of our pampos. It seems very
improbable that his appearance was that of a native Hawaiian. On the
following page it is pointed out that some of the vignettes can be
seen on South American banknotes. the explanation is valid: a sheep,
a little girl, a horse, a cow, and a locamotive that appear on the
notes are recognized as their own.
The American Banknote Company always took advantage of their
engravings in several editions, although they might have been from
distact countries. The banknote in question has it exact correlation
in the fractionary issue of the National Bank of 1873 for 20 cents
that -- what a surprise -- might have been printed by the American
Banknote Company. Even now it is more than a simple coincidence
that, as we might have already said, they were relatively
common.
A notation in the margin: the Kingdom of Hawaii was the first
country to recognize the independence of our country. It signed a
treaty of peace, friendship and mutual defence with the commandant
of the frigate "La Argentina" that, with letters of marque, Admiral
Hipolito Bouchard carried to the islands.
Continuing with our history and paging to No. 1850 of Coin
World issue of September 25, 1995, in the column "Noteables"
written by Gene Hesler under the title Hawaiian Notes carry
images reflecting life in the Pacific, he talks casually about
$10 silver certificates that have the image of a cowboy herding
cattle in the center of the banknote, James D. Smillie -- according
to this article -- created this piece of art entitled Lassoing
Cattle that Luigi Delnoce might have engraved.
And to end this article, in The Numismatist, Volume
106, Number 3, dated March 1993, andunder the title Engraver Turns
Counterfeiter, the same Gene Hessler -- how coincidences
follow -- states that five members of the Delnoce family worked for
the American Banknote Company. One of them, Angelo, was responsible
for the discrediting the whole family that Luigi, his fther, had
founded. Luigi became one of the best and most respected banknote
engravers of the United States. His son, Angelo, succeeded in having
a prominent position at American Banknote which, afterwards, he
renounced to counsel the Argentine Republic by means of his security
impression work. And now his discredit: he was arrested on September
27, 1893, by the American Secret Service for having a vast quantity
of 100 peso notes of the Argentine Confederation in his home in
Livingston, Staten Island, New York City. They also found 25 and 50
cent counterfeit banknotes.
Angelo made many trips to Argentina, obviously to distribute
the counterfeit notes that he had cosen for having lacked engraved
intertwining lines (security features), which made them very easy to
falsify.
Daniel Villamayor
Source: El Telegrafo, Uno 5, Numero 18, Marzo
2000, Centro Numismatico Buenos Aires
Courtesy: Carlos A. Graziadio
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