The Bank of the Republic

Banknote Design

This Two Thousand Pesos bill corresponds to the edition with the portrait of Francisco de Paula Santander on the obverse, printed by the Banknote Printing Office of the Banco de la República itself in predominantly green and beige colors, with the Bogotá Mint reproduced on the reverse.

The Cutting Error “Butterfly”

• Banknotes are printed in sheets containing several notes and then separated by guillotine. When the blade is misaligned, the cut does not follow the line between two adjacent banknotes and leaves a triangular remnant of the neighboring note attached to the main specimen —a defect known among collectors as“butterfly cut”because of the wing-like shape taken by the excess paper.
• On this specimen, the attached fragment preserves part of the portrait of Santander and the numbering of the adjacent note (11538402), while the main note bears the number 11538201 — confirming that both came from consecutive positions on the same printing sheet.
• This type of defect occasionally escapes the quality control of the Banknote Printer and circulates before being detected.

Legacy for Collectors

The pairs of banknotes joined by a butterfly cut are particularly appreciated within the collecting of “error notes” because they preserve visible, in a single object, the physical evidence of the process of separating a sheet of printing —something that an individual banknote could never show.

Sources

• Pick, Albert.Standard Catalog of World Paper Money.
• Heritage Auctions —ha.com(opens in a new tab)
• Numista —numista.com(opens in a new tab)
• Bank of the Republic —banrep.gov.co(opens in a new tab)