50 Centavos 2nd. issue

The Banco Nacional de la República de Colombia had a troubled existence by 1900 — Congress had already voted to liquidate it in 1894, but the institution limped on issuing fractional currency well into the War of a Thousand Days, the catastrophic civil conflict that erupted in October 1899. These small-denomination emissions were driven by acute coin shortages as the war drained metal from circulation. The "2nd issue" designation distinguishes this from earlier Banco Nacional fractional notes of the same value, though the differences between issues are subtle enough that misattribution is common.

Printing by Schroeder's Bogotá shop kept production entirely domestic — unusual given how much Colombian paper currency of this period was contracted abroad.