The Bank of the Republic
Ten Thousand Pesos, 1994 and 1995 — Emberá Woman and Policarpa Salavarrieta
These two specimens from the mid-1990s represent the thematic turn of the Colombian banknote towards the country's cultural and natural diversity: one celebrates the Emberá indigenous identity alongside Colombian fauna, and the other pays tribute to Policarpa Salavarrieta, heroine of independence.
Primer banknote colombiano de Diez Thousand Pesos, emitido en 1992 para conmemorar el quinto centenario de la llegada de los españoles a América, con diseño ganador de un concurso de la pintora bogotana Liliana Ponce de León. Fue también el primer banknote del país en llevar en su obverse a una mujer indígena en lugar de un prócer.
Specimen of the new design honoring Policarpa Salavarrieta, placed in circulation on November 30, 1995 together with the July 1 issue of the same year, with a view of Guaduas on the reverse, in contrast to the commemorative Emberá-woman design that it replaced.
Obverse (top) and reverse (bottom) — Notofilia.com Collection
A Turn Towards Diversity
Unlike earlier series, which focused almost exclusively on national heroes and statesmen, the mid-1990s Ten Thousand Pesos banknotes reflect a more plural Colombia: the 1994 note commemorates Indigenous communities with a portrait of an Emberá woman and a colorful collage of birds and national biodiversity; the 1995 note returns to Policarpa Salavarrieta, “La Pola”, an independence martyr, with a rural scene on the reverse. Both bear the red overprint “SAMPLE WITHOUT VALUE” and zero serial numbers.
The “Vallenatos Banknotes”
The Embera woman's bill circulated for just two years. On October 16, 1994, a group of assailants entered the headquarters of the Bank of the Republic in Valledupar and, after spending 18 hours there, took 24 billion pesos in what was known as “, the robbery of the century”. Authorities released the serial numbers of the stolen banknotes and warned the public not to receive them, giving rise to the popular nickname “vallenato banknotes”.
The episode precipitated the withdrawal from circulation of the 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 peso banknotes of this family, replaced between September and November 1995 by a new series with the figures of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Francisco de Paula Santander, José Asunción Silva, Policarpa Salavarrieta, Julio Garavito and Jorge Isaacs.
Who is the Money Woman?
Since 2024, the indigenous Emberá Dobidá Adriana Martínez Dogirama publicly claims to be the person portrayed on the obverse, based on a photograph that researcher Mauricio Pardo Rojas took of her in Chocó when she was just 14 years old. Her claim, first reported by Semana magazine, took her to Bogotá in 2024 with the support of the Numismatic Society of Colombia, and led to a lawsuit against the Bank of the Republic for the non-consensual use of her image.
The Bank of the Republic has maintained in response that the portrait on the bill is an original artistic work, inspired by general features of the Embera women —the face paint, the necklaces, the earrings— and not the reproduction of a particular identified person. The case, with no similar documented precedents, remains open and has not been judicially resolved.
Sources
- Bank of the Republic.External Operational and Services Circular DTE-203, Subject 54 — Bills of $10,000.September 13, 2017 (Treasury Manual).
- Radio Nacional de Colombia. “The little-known story of the first $10,000 banknote and why it ceased to circulate.” June 5, 2022.
- Revista Semana. “The incredible story of Adriana Martínez Dogirama, the Emberá woman on the 10,000-peso banknote” and subsequent coverage of the lawsuit against Banco de la República. September 2024 — March 2025.
- El Tiempo. “The story behind the face on the 10,000-peso banknote and the Emberá woman who sued the nation over the use of her image.” March 2025.
- Pick, Albert.Standard Catalog of World Paper Money.
- Bank of the Republic —banrep.gov.co(opens in a new tab)