10 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia was established by law in 1880 as the country's first government-owned central bank, a direct response to the chronic instability of the private banking system that had dominated Colombian finance through the 1870s. This note dates from the bank's earliest operational period, before the monetary chaos of the Thousand Days War made most pre-1900 Colombian paper effectively worthless in circulation.

Printed locally by Litografía de D. Paredes rather than sent abroad to a European security printer — unusual for a state bank note of this period — which likely reflects both nationalist policy and the practical difficulty of commissioning work from London or Paris on short notice. Surviving examples frequently show uneven ink distribution, a known characteristic of Paredes's press work.