Catalog
10 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Popular de Medellín |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black with an orange-brown underprint. Three allegorical vignettes occupy the upper register: reclining cherub figures flank a central scene of a treasure chest with a dog. The bank title 'EL BANCO POPULAR DE MEDELLIN' appears in large bold letterpress across the centre, above the denomination inscription. Lower left bears an intaglio vignette of a man with a horse at camp, while the lower right shows a standing female figure; both panels are surrounded by elaborate lathe-work guilloche borders with 'DIEZ' repeated along the margins. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO POPULAR DE MEDELLIN PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR Y Á LA VISTA, LA CANTIDAD DE 10 DIEZ PESOS 10 DE LEY EN MONEDAS CORRIENTES Medellín, de 18 EL DIRECTOR EL CAJERO DIEZ |
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| Comments |
The Banco Popular de Medellín was a regional private bank operating during Colombia's so-called "free banking" period, when the 1880 banking legislation allowed departmental and private institutions to issue their own currency. The American Bank Note Company supplied engraved notes to dozens of Latin American issuers during this period, and the Medellín bank was among the smaller Colombian clients — which makes surviving examples proportionally scarcer than issues from the larger Bogotá-based banks.
Colombia's chaotic monetary unification in the 1880s and 1890s eventually rendered all such private issues obsolete, and many were recalled and destroyed rather than allowed to circulate to exhaustion.