5 Pesos/5 Dollars

The Banco de la República referenced here is not Colombia's modern central bank — that institution was founded in 1923. This is one of several private commercial banks operating under the same or similar name during Colombia's era of free banking, when the 1865 banking law permitted chartered private banks to issue their own circulating notes. The bilingual denomination — pesos on one face, dollars on the other — reflects the practical reality of cross-border trade along Colombia's Caribbean coast and Panama, where U.S. dollar valuation was a commercial necessity, not a political gesture.

Homer Lee Bank Note Company printed for numerous Latin American private banks during its decade of operation before being absorbed by the American Bank Note Company in 1891.