Catalog
4 Reales / 50 Centavos
| Issuer | Colombia |
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| Year | 1819-1820 |
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| Currency | Peso pre-decimal (1810-1847) |
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| Obverse description | Letterpress print in black on white paper, with oval guilloche cartouches at the left and right margins bearing the denomination legend QUATRO REALES vertically, and the numeral 4 at each upper corner. A central engraved vignette presents a laden donkey in profile, flanked by typeset promise text and the large numeral 50 in the lower centre, with the imprint P. Maverick, New York at the foot. Handwritten manuscript signatures and a serial number are applied in ink over the printed design. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain unprinted paper reverse with no typeset or engraved design elements, bearing multiple handwritten manuscript signatures applied in brown ink. |
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| Comments |
Among the earliest paper emissions tied to the Gran Colombian independence struggle, this note was printed by Peter Maverick in New York — a significant detail. Maverick was a well-regarded engraver and printer who worked for several newly independent Latin American governments during this period, supplying printed material that the nascent republics lacked the infrastructure to produce themselves.
The dual denomination — 4 Reales and 50 Centavos — reflects the transitional monetary arithmetic of a government simultaneously inheriting Spanish colonial units and reaching toward a decimalized future.