The Bank of the Republic
One Hundred Pesos Gold, per year of issue
Since the Bank of the Republic centralized the country's monetary issue in 1923, the One Hundred Pesos Gold bill circulated for decades with the same general design —, the portrait of General Francisco de Paula Santander on the obverse and the National Capitol of Bogotá on the reverse —, with variants of year, signatures and printer. This page brings together the specimens in the collection in chronological order.
Common Design
Obverse:portrait of Francisco de Paula Santander, independence hero and former president of New Granada, with the denomination “100” in all four corners and the inscription “PAGARÁ AL PORTADOR … CIEN PESOS ORO”, together with the issue date and the signatures of the Manager and Secretary.
Reverse:vignette of Bogotá's National Capitol, seat of the Congress of the Republic, except on the 1983 specimen, which instead returns to Villa de Leyva.
Four Specimens, Four Decades
The specimen ofAugust 7, 1947, printed by the American Bank Note Company, carries the English “SPECIMEN” overprint typical of mid-century ABNC production for Colombian centralized banking.
The one fromJanuary 2, 1969, from the Y Series and printed by Thomas De La Rue & Company, Limited, maintains the same general design with Santander on the obverse and the National Capitol on the reverse, with the red overprint “SPECIMEN” and repeated zeroing at both corners.
The one fromJanuary 1, 1980, also printed by Thomas De La Rue & Company, Limited, bears the word “SPECIMEN” superimposed in red on both sides, two ovals “NO VALUE”, the circular seal of the printing house, the inscription “SPECIMEN N.° 027” and serial numbering in zeros, as well as small cancellation perforations —own marks of the specimens or archive, never put into circulation.
The one fromJanuary 1, 1983already reflects the editorial nationalization of Colombian currency, with the Spanish inscription “MUESTRA SIN VALOR” and a reverse that replaces the National Capitol with Villa de Leyva, an emblematic colonial town of Colombian heritage.
Specimens as a Banking Tool
Specimens like these were distributed by the printing house among correspondent central banks and its own archives for design approval, which explains their excellent state of conservation compared to ordinary circulation banknotes.
Legacy for Collectors
Collecting the Cien Pesos Oro from different issue years makes it possible to trace, through a single banknote type, the evolution of signatures, printers, and security varieties in Colombian paper money during the second half of the 20th century —an approachable form of collecting that also reveals the institutional history of Banco de la República.
Sources
- Pick, Albert.Standard Catalog of World Paper Money.
- Hernández, Pedro Pablo.Coins and Banknotes of Colombia.
- Restrepo, Jorge Emilio.Coins of Colombia.
- 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)