20 Centavos

The Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia had a turbulent final chapter. Established in 1881 under Rafael Núñez's financial reforms, the bank issued inconvertible paper currency that fueled chronic inflation through the 1880s and 1890s. By 1894 it had effectively lost public confidence, and the War of the Thousand Days — beginning in 1899 — pushed the monetary system into near-collapse. Notes from 1900 were printed in enormous quantities to finance government forces, driving exchange rates into absurdity.

The bank was liquidated in 1904. Most fractional notes from this period survived in quantity precisely because their purchasing power evaporated before they could be spent.