5 Pesos Banco de la Union

Banco de la Unión was one of several private Colombian banks chartered under the liberal banking legislation of the 1870s, which briefly allowed provincial institutions to issue their own currency with minimal federal oversight. The arrangement collapsed under fiscal pressure during the 1880s as the Regeneration government of Rafael Núñez moved to centralize monetary control, eventually establishing the Banco Nacional in 1880 and pushing the private banks into an increasingly constrained existence.

ABNC engraved notes for dozens of Latin American private banks during this period, often reusing plate elements across clients. Whether PS181 shares vignette stock with contemporaneous Colombian or regional issues is worth checking against the ABNC archives at the American Antiquarian Society.