1 Peso

The Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia was established by law in 1880 to replace the chaotic patchwork of private bank emissions that had plagued Colombian commerce for decades. Its notes carried forced legal tender status — deeply controversial in a country with strong free-banking traditions and a merchant class that had grown accustomed to the notes of regional private banks.

American Bank Note Company's engraved intaglio work for Colombian government clients during this period was among the finest produced for any Latin American issuer. The 1888–1895 date span for P#214 covers years of accelerating fiscal pressure that would eventually lead to the catastrophic peso hyperinflation of the late 1890s War of the Thousand Days period.