100 Pesos

Banco de Colombia was a private commercial bank chartered in Bogotá in 1875, one of several institutions authorized to issue currency under Colombia's free banking period — a deliberately decentralized monetary arrangement that lasted until the founding of the Banco de la República in 1923. The American Bank Note Company contract for this series was entirely typical of the period; Colombian private banks routinely commissioned ABNC for prestige engraving, partly for security reasons and partly because locally printed notes were viewed with suspicion in commercial circles.

The S-prefix in the Pick reference indicates provisional or private bank classification, not a specimen designation. Surviving circulated examples from this 1881 issue are uncommon — the denomination was high enough that notes saw relatively limited daily turnover and were more likely to be held, redeemed, or cancelled than worn to rags.