Catalog
20 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1881 |
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| In circulation to | Yes |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on blue guilloche underprint. The Colombian Coat of Arms appears as a vignette at left, flanked by a central scene of laborers unloading bales from a horse-drawn cart, with an engraved portrait of General Antonio Nariño at right. The issuing bank title and promise-to-pay legend are set within an ornate typographic layout, with the printer's imprint of American Bank Note Co., New York, at the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO BOGOTÁ, 1º DE MARZO DE 1881. NACIONAL DE LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE COLOMBIA PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR Á LA VISTA Veinte Pesos en Moneda Corriente. American Bank Note Co. New York (Translation: Bogota, March 1st., 1881. The National Bank of The United States of Colombia Pay to Bearer at sight Twenty Pesos in currency.) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia was a short-lived institution — created by the federal government in 1880 to assert central control over a monetary system that had been fragmented among regional state banks and private concessionaires. This 20 Pesos note from 1881 belongs to the bank's earliest emission, printed by ABNC in New York before the political climate in Bogotá had fully resolved who, legally, had authority to issue paper currency at the national level.
The federal structure dissolved entirely with the 1886 constitution, which abolished the United States of Colombia and reconstituted the country as the Republic of Colombia. Notes from this issuer did not survive long in circulation after that transition.