1 Peso

Banco de Bogotá was the first private commercial bank established in Colombia, founded in 1870 under legislation that briefly opened the country to free banking. This note predates the Banco Nacional and the era of centralized Colombian currency by nearly a decade — private banks like Bogotá issued their own circulating notes under concession, competing directly with one another in a fragmented monetary environment that lasted until the 1880s reforms.

The American Bank Note Company plate work for Colombian private bank issues of this period is generally fine, and the Bogotá series is no exception. Cotton substrate on early ABNCo Colombian provincials tends to yellow unevenly along fold lines.