Catalog
20 Centavos / 2 Reales Banco Nacional de Colombia
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1887 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on gold underprint, with a portrait vignette of President Rafael Núñez at left and the Colombian Arms at right. Red serial number printed in letterpress. The overall layout is framed with fine lathe-work borders typical of late 19th-century American bank note engraving. |
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| Obverse lettering | EL Banco Nacional de Colombia PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR Á LA VISTA VEINTE CENTAVOS BOGOTÁ, 1 DE ENERO DE 1887. (Translation: The National Bank of Colombia Pay to bearer at sight Twenty Cents Bogota, January 1, 1887.) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional de Colombia was established by the Colombian government in 1880 specifically to hold a monopoly on paper money issuance, displacing the private banks that had dominated during the earlier free-banking period. This note's dual denomination — centavos on one face, reales on the other — reflects the awkward transitional arithmetic of the 1871 decimalization, which had not yet fully displaced the old real-based accounting in everyday commerce sixteen years later.
Homer Lee operated out of New York during a relatively brief window before being absorbed into larger consolidations. Their Colombian work from this period is among the more obscure corners of their output.