5 Pesos

Banco del Cauca was one of several regional Colombian banks that emerged following the 1865 banking liberalization, operating out of Popayán and serving the commercial interests of the Cauca region during a period when Colombia had no unified national currency. Each state-chartered bank issued its own notes, redeemable in specie at the issuing branch — a system that worked tolerably well until the political upheavals of the 1880s began to erode confidence in regional paper.

The American Bank Note Company produced this series at their New York facility, as they did for dozens of Latin American clients during this period. ABNC's involvement guaranteed a level of anti-counterfeiting sophistication that local Colombian printers simply could not match.

The bank's note-issuing privileges were effectively ended by the Reyes administration's nationalization of currency in the early 1880s, making this a short-lived series.