10 Pesos Oro Legal

Banco del Ruiz was one of several Colombian departmental banks chartered under the 1880s free banking laws, operating out of Manizales in the coffee-growing heart of Caldas. These private banks issued their own currency with relative freedom until the government began systematically revoking charters in the early 1900s, a process that effectively ended Colombia's private banking era. By 1910, most of these regional institutions had been absorbed or liquidated under pressure from Bogotá's centralizing reforms.

The "Oro Legal" designation was not decorative — it legally bound redemption to a gold standard at a fixed statutory rate, distinguishing the note from peso-denominated paper with no specie guarantee. ABNC handled much of the printing work for Colombian regional banks during this period, their New York plant being the default choice for any issuer wanting engraved intaglio work that local printers could not produce.