10 Centavos

El Banco Nacional was a state-controlled institution that operated under persistent political tension — the Colombian government repeatedly clashed with Congress over its right to issue inconvertible paper money throughout the 1880s and 1890s. By 1900, the country was deep in the Thousand Days War, and small fractional notes like this one filled a practical gap left by the near-total disappearance of coin from circulation. Hoarding of metal currency was widespread.

Villaveces was one of the few domestic printing operations capable of producing banknotes in Colombia at the time. The reliance on a local lithographer rather than a European security printer reflects wartime conditions more than institutional preference.