5 Pesos Oro Legal

Banco de Caldas was a regional Colombian bank operating out of Manizales, chartered under the banking laws that proliferated after the country's 1905 monetary reorganization. Its notes circulated primarily within the coffee-producing departments of the Colombian interior, where local credit instruments often moved more reliably than distant Bogotá-issued currency.

The American Bank Note Company handled an enormous share of Latin American paper at this period, and Caldas's contract was one of dozens running simultaneously through the New York plant. What distinguishes this issue is its timing: by 1919, Colombia was already moving toward centralized banking, and private departmental banks like Caldas were operating on borrowed time. The Banco de la República, established in 1923, effectively ended their note-issuing authority.