Catalog
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| Issuer | Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
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| Printer | American Bank Note Company, New York, United States |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | El Banco Nacional De Los Estados Unidos De Colombia Pagará al portador á la vista UN PESO EN MONEDA CORRIENTE Bogotá, 1º de Marzo de 1881. American Bank Note Co. New York (Translation: The National Bank of The United States of Colombia Pay to Bearer at sight One Peso in currency. Bogota, March 1st., 1881.) |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in brown, the reverse is dominated by an intricate guilloche framework of four symmetrical lathe-work panels arranged around a central oval cartouche bearing the issuing bank name in two arched lines. Numeral denominators appear within the lateral guilloche medallions, and the imprint of the American Bank Note Company, New York, is placed along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia was established by law in 1880 as the country's first government-owned bank, with a mandate to issue a unified national currency and displace the chaotic proliferation of private bank notes that had dominated Colombian commerce for decades. This 1 peso note belongs to the bank's earliest issue, printed by ABNC in New York before domestic printing infrastructure existed.
The federal structure implied by "Estados Unidos de Colombia" — the name adopted under the 1863 Rionegro Constitution — was already politically contested by the time these notes circulated. The centralist 1886 constitution abolished that arrangement entirely, and the bank itself was liquidated in 1894 amid the monetary instability that preceded the Thousand Days War.