Sovereign State of Panama

Historical and Issue Context

A state treasury within the federation:Under the Rionegro Constitution of 1863, Panama was one of the nine sovereign states that made up the United States of Colombia, with broad fiscal and administrative autonomy. Under the protection of this autonomy, Law 17 of August 17, 1865 authorized the Treasury of the Sovereign State of Panama to issue its own banknotes, including this Three Peso banknote, printed by the American Bank Note Company of New York.¹

The portrait of Tomás Herrera:The bust engraved on the obverse corresponds to Tomás Herrera (1804–1854), a Panamanian soldier and statesman who in 1840 presided over the short-lived State of the Isthmus and is remembered as one of the founding figures of Panamanian autonomism —an iconographic choice that underlines the character of the issue, different from the Bogotá paper money of the era.¹

Almost four decades before the separation:This banknote documents Isthmus Panama in the mid-19th century, still firmly integrated into Colombia under the federal model, almost forty years before the separation of 1903 gave rise to the Republic of Panama.

Key Details Visible on the Banknote

• Header:“TREASURY BILL” and “PANAMA SOVEREIGN STATUS”, with the number “6580” printed in red ink under the title, and ovals with the figure “3” at both upper ends.
• Central vignette:a standing allegorical woman beside a port scene —a sailing ship and mountains in the background—, evoking Panama's maritime and isthmian character, with an engraved anchor at right.
• Portrait:engraved bust of Tomás Herrera in the lower left corner, within an oval frame.
• Text of the obligation:handwritten heading “Panama… of 186…”, and the lower band printed “EL ADMINISTRADOR JENERAL DE HACIENDA” on the legend “LAW 17 OF 1865”, with signature handwritten by the official.
• Reverse:printed in brown ink with the text and figure “3” in mirror —a common convention of nineteenth-century printing to make counterfeiting difficult—, with the handwritten signature “E. Briceño” and an additional small oval portrait.

Additional Context

Unlike the private bank notes of the free banking era, this copy is a state public debt note — issued directly by the Treasury of a sovereign state of the federation, and not by a bank entity—, which is more akin to the 1861 note of the United States Treasury of New Granada than to the role of the Colombian commercial banks of the last third of the nineteenth century.