Catalog
3 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1866-1873 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | At lower left, a portrait vignette of General Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera Herrera; at right, an anchor vignette. The central vignette presents a maritime and mountain landscape with a standing allegorical female figure surrounded by tropical vegetation. The denomination TRES appears in large bold letterpress type across the face. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Reverse is blank, with manuscript annotations and what appears to be a handwritten signature or endorsement visible through the paper. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Colombia was one of several private commercial banks chartered under Colombia's 1865 banking legislation, which allowed individual states and private institutions to issue their own currency. This note predates the Banco Nacional de Colombia by over a decade — centralized note issue wouldn't arrive until 1880, meaning these private bank issues were the functional currency of everyday commerce in the region.
The American Bank Note Company in New York handled engraving and printing for numerous Latin American banks during this period, often supplying identical border elements and vignette components across multiple clients. Worth checking whether plate elements on this Banco de Colombia series appear on contemporaneous issues from neighboring republics — ABNC reused components more freely than their clients likely knew.