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25 Pesos
| Issuer | República de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1904 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | P#313 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a central oval vignette of a Colombian church with a bell tower, set within an elaborate symmetrical guilloche framework with large interlaced '25' numerals repeated in each corner and along the borders. Stars punctuate the upper border, and fine lathe-work geometric patterns fill all remaining space. A lower inscription band references the Junta Nacional de Amortización, with the printer's imprint 'Waterlow & Sons Lt. Londres, Inglaterra' at the foot. |
| Reverse lettering | EN EL PAGO DE LA JUNTA NACIONAL DE AMORTIZACIÓN Waterlow & Sons Lt. Londres, Inglaterra |
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| Comments |
Colombia's 1904 issues came at a painful moment — the country had just emerged from the Thousand Days War (1899–1902), one of the bloodiest civil conflicts in its history, and the peso itself had been catastrophically debased. At the war's peak, the government was printing unbacked paper currency in quantities that drove inflation into the thousands of percent. The Waterlow & Sons contract represented an attempt to restore credibility through externally produced, security-printed notes after years of domestic emergency issues.
Waterlow had been printing for Latin American governments since the mid-nineteenth century and was a natural choice for a republic trying to signal fiscal rehabilitation to foreign creditors. Whether it succeeded is another matter — Colombia's monetary situation remained unstable well into the following decade.