20 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia had a troubled existence almost from the start — it held a state monopoly on note issue but was chronically undercapitalized, and by the late 1890s the government was printing paper money to finance the Thousand Days War, one of the most destructive civil conflicts in Colombian history. This note falls squarely in that inflationary spiral. Emissions multiplied rapidly between 1900 and 1902, and the peso depreciated to near worthlessness before the bank was formally liquidated in 1904.

Printing domestically at Litografía Nacional rather than through a European security printer was itself a symptom of wartime fiscal desperation. Quality control suffered accordingly.