Catalog
50 Centavos Banco de Medellin
| Issuer | Banco de Medellín |
|---|---|
| Year | 1895 |
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| Printer | Bradbury Wilkinson and Company, United Kingdom (1856-1990) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | El Banco de Medellín / Pagará al portador y á la vista la cantidad de Cincuenta Centavos de ley en monedas corrientes. / Medellín, de 18 / El Cajero El Gerente El Contador / Cincuenta Centavos / Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co / Engravers London |
| Reverse description | Uniface orange letterpress reverse with an overall guilloche underprint pattern composed of repeating '50' numerals. The large denomination numeral '50' is set within a central oval guilloche frame, flanked by the word 'CENTAVOS' and further '50' counters at the corners. 'BANCO DE MEDELLIN' appears across the top and 'CINCUENTA CENTAVOS' along the bottom, all within a continuous decorative border. A circular government cancellation stamp of the Secretaría del Departamento de Antioquia is applied in violet ink at left. |
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| Comments |
Banco de Medellín was one of several regional Colombian banks that flourished under the 1880 banking law permitting private note issue — a privilege that lasted only until the Banco de la República's monopoly was consolidated in the early 1920s. This 50 Centavos note predates the severe monetary disruption of the Thousand Days War (1899–1902), which wrecked most of the private banking system and rendered enormous quantities of regional banknotes worthless almost overnight.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced the plates in London, a common arrangement for South American issuers seeking security printing beyond the reach of local counterfeiters. Surviving examples from Medellín's smaller denominations are considerably scarcer than the higher values — fractional notes suffered harder circulation and were rarely preserved.