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20 Centavos

Issuer Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia
Year 1900
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Currency Paper Peso (1872-1916)
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Obverse description The Colombian national coat of arms appears as a central vignette at left, with the large numeral 20 in guilloche underprint at lower centre. Bank title and promise-to-pay clause are inscribed in letterpress across the upper and central fields, with the date BOGOTÁ, MARZO 25 DE 1900 and multiple manuscript signatures of the Junta de Emisión members below.
Obverse lettering EL BANCO NACIONAL DE LA REPÚBLICA DE COLOMBIA PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR A LA VISTA VEINTE CENTAVOS EN MONEDA CORRIENTE BOGOTÁ, MARZO 25 DE 1900 MINISTRO TESORERO MIEMBROS DE LA JUNTA DE EMISIÓN
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Comments

Colombia's 1900 was not a stable year for paper currency. The War of a Thousand Days — one of the bloodiest civil wars in Colombian history — began in October of that year, and the Banco Nacional was already under severe strain from years of unbacked note emissions. The government had been printing heavily against inadequate metallic reserves since the 1880s, and by 1900 the bank's notes were widely distrusted and trading at steep discounts to their face value.

Local printing in Bogotá was the only practical option by this point — international printers were inaccessible under wartime conditions. The Banco Nacional itself was formally liquidated in 1904 as part of postwar monetary reform.

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