20 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia had a troubled final chapter. The bank was liquidated by government decree in 1894 following years of accusations of over-issuance and political manipulation of the money supply, yet notes continued to circulate and be honored well into the following decade — which explains how a bank formally abolished six years earlier was still producing dated obligations in 1900.

Printing by the Litografía Nacional in Bogotá rather than a European security printer was a deliberate cost-cutting measure during a period of severe fiscal strain, one that contributed to the variable print quality seen across surviving examples of this series.