Catalog
10 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco de Cartagena |
|---|---|
| Year | 1882 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress design on white paper, with the bold curved inscription EL BANCO DE CARTAGENA across the upper field flanked by the numeral 10 in each upper corner. A central vignette portrays a seated figure at a writing desk or cabinet, rendered in fine intaglio style. The lower portion carries the date CARTAGENA, 1º de Enero de 1882, two manuscript signatures above their respective titles, and a serial number in red at the upper left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed entirely in green on white paper, the reverse is dominated by a large central oval guilloche medallion bearing the bold numeral 10, framed by concentric lathe-work borders of great intricacy. Two circular rosette guilloche panels flank the central oval at left and right, all contained within a fine engine-turned rectangular border. Vertical inscriptions in small type run along both side margins. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Cartagena was one of several private regional banks that emerged following Colombia's 1871 banking legislation, which deliberately decentralized credit and note issuance away from Bogotá. By 1882 the bank was operating under increasingly strained conditions — the same decade would see chronic political instability culminate in the Thousand Days' War, and many of the private banks it overlapped with were wiped out entirely during the monetary chaos of the 1880s and 1890s.
Fractional notes at 10 centavos from provincial Colombian issuers of this period are genuinely rare survivors. Most saw hard daily use and were not redeemed in any organized way.