Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Pesos Oro
| Issuer | Banco de la República |
|---|---|
| Year | 1923 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Rectangular |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Portrait of Simón Bolívar in uniform within an oval vignette at right, set against an intricate green guilloche underprint that fills the note face. The denomination numeral 500 appears in large figures at centre-left, flanked by serial numbers in red at upper left and upper right, with series letter below each. Date and place of issue, Bogota, Colombia, 20 de Julio de 1923, appear at lower centre, with signature lines for El Gerente and El Secretario. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Banco de la Republica Bogota Colombia Quinientos Pesos Oro (Translation: Bank of the Republic Bogota Colombia Five Hundred Pesos Oro) |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banco de la República was established in July 1923, making this 500 Pesos Oro among the earliest notes issued by Colombia's newly created central bank. The republic had endured decades of monetary chaos under a fragmented system of private and departmental banks — the 1923 reform, guided in large part by the Kemmerer Mission, a U.S. financial advisory team, consolidated that mess into a single note-issuing authority.
The American Bank Note Company contract was a deliberate choice for credibility. At that denomination, counterfeiting risk was serious, and ABNC's intaglio work was considered among the hardest to replicate in Latin America at the time.