5 Pesos Oro

Colombia's 1938 5 Pesos Oro issue came from a period when the Banco de la República was consolidating its monopoly on note issuance following the monetary reforms of the early 1930s — reforms forced in part by the global depression and Colombia's suspension of gold convertibility in 1931. The American Bank Note Company had been printing Colombian currency for decades by this point, and the relationship was routine enough that plate designs from earlier series were frequently adapted rather than fully redrawn.

Pick 341 is not particularly scarce in circulated grades, but high-grade survivors are less common than the print run might suggest — Colombian tropical storage conditions were hard on paper.