500 Pesos Oro

The 500 Pesos Oro denomination was introduced during a period when Colombia's central bank was actively rationalizing its note series, and Thomas De La Rue's London facilities handled the bulk of high-value Colombian production through this stretch. What distinguishes P#423 across its run is the signature combination instability — three known signatories across just five years, with at least two "Unknown" secondary positions still unconfirmed in the literature, making signature attribution a genuine cataloging problem rather than a minor footnote.

The watermark remains the sole listed security feature, modest even by early 1980s standards. Colombian notes of this period were already contending with sophisticated counterfeiting pressure tied to narco-economy cash flows, which would soon push Banco de la República toward more complex security specifications in successor issues.