Catalog
1 Peso
| Issuer | Banco del Departamento de Bolívar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1888 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper. Left vignette shows a female allegorical bust in profile wearing a helmet, right vignette bears a St. Bernard dog's head. Central text panel carries the bank title and denomination within guilloche underprint, with manuscript date "Cartagena Marzo 1° de 1888" and signature lines for El Gerente and El Contador. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in red on plain paper, the reverse centres the denomination "UN PESO" on a scroll above an elaborate guilloche panel. The word "SPECIMEN." is overprinted in the central field. Four corner ornaments and repeated "UNO" counters in mirror script surround the guilloche, with the printer's imprint at the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
The Banco del Departamento de Bolívar operated out of Cartagena, one of several Colombian departmental banks that flourished briefly under the 1880 banking law before the national government systematically dismantled regional note-issuing privileges in the 1890s. This note predates that suppression by only a few years. Hamilton Bank Note Company, a New York firm that competed aggressively for Latin American government and bank contracts throughout the late nineteenth century, produced the plate work.
Surviving examples from this issuer are genuinely uncommon — the bank's lifespan was short and circulation was geographically limited to the Caribbean coastal region.