Catalog
25 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de la Unión |
|---|---|
| Year | 1887-1889 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S225 |
| Obverse description | Black and red on white paper. Central vignette of a three-masted steamship underway, flanked by two large red guilloche rosettes bearing the numeral 25. Header reads COSTA RICA with EL BANCO DE LA UNION in an arc above. Text below reads PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR LA CANTIDAD DE VEINTICINCO PESOS EN MONEDA ACUÑADA, with place of issue San José. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | COSTA RICA EL BANCO DE LA UNION PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR LA CANTIDAD DE VEINTICINCO PESOS EN MONEDA ACUÑADA 25 San José |
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| Comments |
Banco de la Unión was one of several private commercial banks operating in Colombia under the 1880 banking law, which permitted note-issuing privileges without a central bank to regulate them. The result was a fragmented, competitive currency environment — multiple banks printing their own pesos simultaneously, with public confidence varying sharply by region and by issuer.
The American Bank Note Company's involvement was typical for Latin American private banks of this period seeking to discourage counterfeiting through intaglio printing unavailable domestically. Whether notes of this series actually reached wide circulation before Colombia's banking reforms of the early 1890s curtailed private issuance is genuinely unclear from surviving records.