Colombian coin was born in Santa Fe, not in a central bank. The mint of the New Kingdom of Granada was founded in 1620; the next year it began to hammer gold and silver — cobs of irregular outline. The Banco de la República dates that founding to 1620; the Casa de Moneda Museum recalls that work began in 1621, in one of the city’s earliest houses. Those escudos and reales, with cob silver arriving from Mexico and Peru, were the viceroyalty’s circulating coin.
In the eighteenth century the Crown took the mint into royal administration and mechanized it. Viceroy Solís reopened the house in 1756; from 1757 screw presses made round, reeded coin. Popayán opened in 1758, closed after disputes with Santafé, and a royal cédula of 1766 reopened it. Until independence, Santa Fe and Popayán refined Antioquia and Cauca gold and collected the royal fifth.
War broke that order. In 1811 Cartagena’s junta struck half-real and two-real coppers; in 1813 Nariño ordered the china coin for the Southern Campaign; Bolívar, master of the mints after Boyacá, asked for the same type. Adolfo Meisel also records royalist issues from Popayán and Santa Marta and the low-fineness caraqueña. The Cúcuta Congress tried to restore Spanish fineness; Santander evaded the rule with antedated issues. In 1836 the regime was unified; in 1846–1847, under Mosquera, Lino de Pombo and Florentino González imposed 0.900 fine metal and the decimal system, and the cob was withdrawn.
The Republic of 1886 inherited the peso. In 1946 the Banco de la República took over the mint by contract with the nation; in 1982 it opened the planchet factory at Ibagué and in 1987 moved striking there. Law 31 of 1993 folded the house into the issuing bank. The 2012 family — biodiversity and water — won the next year’s prize for best circulating series. This case gathers that arc: from the cobs of Santa Fe to the peso now in the pocket.
Paper money from the same periods is documented in the notaphily case. Colombia · Free banking and the Banco de la República
The catalog
Five cases in one row, left to right: colonial Santa Fe, Independence and Gran Colombia, New Granada, the Republic, and Lazarettos. Individual type pages will be published as they are documented, as in the Philippines case and the Colombian paper case.
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1620–1819
The Santa Fe mint
Period · 1620–1819
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Independence and Gran Colombia
Period · 1810–1830
1/4 real · Santa Marta · 1820
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1831–1886
New Granada and the United States of Colombia
Period · 1831–1886
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from 1886
The Republic and the coin factory
Period · from 1886
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from 1598
Lazarettos
Period · from 1598
Read the catalog →
1620–1819
The Santa Fe mint
The mint of the New Kingdom: hammered cobs, then milled coin with a reeded edge, and the sister house at Popayán.
The Banco de la República dates the mint’s founding to 1620; the Casa de Moneda Museum notes that striking began in 1621, in one of Santafé’s earliest houses. In the seventeenth century the works were a smithy: Antioquia and Chocó gold was melted and refined, then hammered into cobs of irregular outline. In 1751 the Crown took the mint into royal administration. Viceroy Solís reopened it in 1756 — the year is still on the stone doorway — and from 1757 screw presses made round coin. Popayán opened in 1758, closed after disputes with Santafé, and a royal cédula of 1766 reopened it. Adolfo Meisel lists the eighteenth-century finenesses: gold at 0.916½, 0.901, and 0.875; silver near 0.902. Peruvian and Mexican cobs arriving with situados joined that local coin.
1810–1830
Independence and Gran Colombia
Cartagena coppers, Nariño and Bolívar’s china coin, and the jumble of finenesses after Boyacá.
Cartagena’s junta ordered half-real and two-real coppers in 1811, struck through 1815. In Santa Fe, Nariño ordered the provincial china coin in 1813 — the Indian bust — to fund the Southern Campaign; it was struck from 1814 to 1816. After Boyacá, Bolívar took the Bogotá and Popayán mints and, on 18 August 1819, asked for the same type. Meisel, following Barriga Villalba and Restrepo, also records royalist coppers at Popayán (1813), the 1816 patriot feble, Santa Marta silver ordered by Viceroy Montalvo, and the low-fineness caraqueña that came with Morillo. The Cúcuta Congress of 1821 tried to restore Spanish weight and fineness; Santander evaded the rule with low-fineness issues antedated to 1821. Banrepcultural’s encyclopedia also records low-fineness cobs struck on the Caracas pattern in Casanare.
1/4 real · Santa Marta · 1820
A copper siege cuartillo: a crown over 1/4 and 1820; on the other side, a cross dividing the letters S and M of Santa Marta.
Open the piece →1831–1886
New Granada and the United States of Colombia
The 1836 unification, the 1846–1847 decimal reform, and the mints of a country that changed its name three times.
After Gran Colombia dissolved, the 1836 law repealed the Cúcuta rules and tried to unify fineness, weight, value, type, and denomination, with gold to silver at 1 to 16. Cobs and clipped coin stayed in the market; their withdrawal, already ordered in 1826, was not finished until about 1848. In Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera’s first government, Lino de Pombo and Florentino González imposed 0.900 fine metal and a decimal system in 1846–1847: base coinage stopped and what was taken in was restruck. The peso, which in 1837 had replaced the real at eight reales to the peso, was split into ten reales — later décimos, from 1853. The Medellín mint opened in 1866. Under the Granadine Confederation and the United States of Colombia (1863–1886) silver pesos and gold from the three mints remained convertible, while free-banking paper began to circulate beside them.
from 1886
The Republic and the coin factory
The Regeneración peso, administration by the Banco de la República, and the move of striking to Ibagué.
The 1886 constitution restored the name Republic of Colombia; the gold peso remained the standard while Banco Nacional paper and the Thousand Days’ War wrecked convertibility. In 1946 the Banco de la República took over the mint by contract with the nation. In 1982 it opened a planchet factory at Ibagué — blanks had been imported — and in 1987 moved striking there: Santa Fe ceased to strike after 366 years; the building is now the Casa de Moneda Museum. Law 31 of 1993 folded the mint into the issuing bank, and that year the first bimetallic 500-peso was struck. In 2012 the family that honors biodiversity and water appeared; the next year it took first place worldwide as best circulating series. This case will gather, as they are documented, colonial, independence, and republican types — as the Philippines notes and Colombian paper already do.
Sources
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Banco de la República — History of the Coin Factory
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Official timeline: founding in 1620, Bank administration in 1946, Ibagué planchets in 1982, the 1987 move of striking, Law 31 of 1993, and the 2012 family.
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Banrepcultural — Reopening of the Casa de Moneda Museum
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Striking from 1621, the 1756 reopening under Viceroy Solís, and the end of work at Santa Fe in 1987.
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Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — The Popayán mint
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Opening in 1758, closure and the 1766 royal cédula; 1816 base coppers for republican troops.
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Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Financing independence
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Bolívar’s 18 August 1819 order to strike the Indian type, and the low-fineness Casanare cobs.
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Adolfo Meisel Roca — The metallic standard, 1821–1879
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Independence chaos, the 1836 law, Pombo and González’s decimal reform (1846–1847), and the withdrawal of cobs by about 1848.
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Banrepcultural — Banco de la República Numismatic Collection
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Casa de Moneda Museum: Santafé (1621–1987), Medellín (1866–1947), and the Ibagué factory.