100 Pesos

The Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia was established in 1880 under the Núñez administration, which used it as a vehicle for forced paper money — notes declared legal tender by decree despite having no meaningful specie backing. By 1885, the year of this note's issue, the country was mid-civil war (the War of 1885), and the bank was printing heavily to finance the government's military campaign against the Liberal federalists. The result was rapid depreciation and public resistance in the provinces.

Printed locally by Litografía de B. Paredes rather than sent abroad to a European security printer, the production quality reflects the constraints of wartime Bogotá.