10 Pesos

The Estado Soberano de Bolívar was one of nine sovereign states under Colombia's federalist constitution of 1863 — an arrangement that gave each state the authority to contract its own paper money, often from North American bank note companies. Hamilton Bank Note Engraving & Printing Co. handled a number of these regional Colombian commissions during the 1870s and 1880s, competing with the better-known American Bank Note Company for exactly this kind of peripheral government work.

The federalist system collapsed in 1886 when Rafael Núñez pushed through the new centralist constitution, ending the sovereign states entirely. Notes issued under the old order were rendered obsolete almost immediately, which limits surviving circulation examples considerably.