Catalog
50 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco del Estado / Estado Soberano del Cauca |
|---|---|
| Year | 1886 |
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| Reference(s) | P#S448 |
| Obverse description | Dark green note with a portrait vignette at left within an oval frame, showing a bearded male figure in formal attire. Central text reads 'Banco del Estado' over 'Estado Soberano del Cauca' with the numeral 50 at upper right. Handwritten date and signatures of El Gerente and El Inspector appear below the denomination text. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | AMERICAN BANK NOTE CO. NEW YORK |
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| Comments |
The Estado Soberano del Cauca was one of Colombia's nine sovereign states under the Rionegro Constitution of 1863, a federalist experiment that gave individual states sweeping autonomy — including the right to charter their own banks and issue currency. That system collapsed in 1886, the same year this note was issued, when Rafael Núñez's centralist "Regeneration" government abolished the sovereign states and folded their institutions into the new Republic of Colombia. A note dated 1886 from the Banco del Estado del Cauca sits right at that fault line.
ABNC production at this fractional denomination was not unusual for Latin American state banks of the period, but the political timing meant few of these notes had any meaningful circulation life before the issuing authority ceased to exist.