5 Pesos

Colombia's Ministerio del Tesoro issued paper currency directly rather than through a central bank during this period — the Banco Nacional had been liquidated in 1894 after a damaging history of forced currency and over-emission, leaving the Treasury to fill the gap. The 1904 date places this note in the immediate aftermath of the Thousand Days War, one of the most destructive civil conflicts in Colombian history, which had ended in late 1902 and left the country's finances in severe disorder.

Waterlow & Sons had handled Colombian government printing work across multiple series; their security printing division was among the most technically capable in London at the time. The cotton substrate was a deliberate choice for durability in tropical circulation conditions.