Colombia · Banco de la República · ABNC
1 peso oro note, 1940
1 peso oro · Banco de la República · 1940
A circulating one-peso oro, Pick 380b: red Series R, eight-digit serial 35555693, 20 July 1940. This record gathers the face and back of the same unslabbed note. It is not the 1945 blue Series R 1 peso oro (Pick 380d).
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P# 380b · TBB B922b
- Serial number
- R 35555693
- Signatures
- Julio Caro (gerente) and Mariano Ospina Vásquez (secretario)
- Condition
- Circulated, unslabbed (private collection)
- Printage
- American Bank Note Company, New York. Banco de la República circulation issue; date on the note 20 July 1940. Published size of the type: 140 × 70 mm. Series R in red, eight-digit serial. González White 2019 numbers this date BG# 021 (p. 33): emisión 24,000,000, serials 22,000,001–46,000,000. That interval contains 24,000,000 numbers. Numista prints 22,000,000 for the same BG# 021 and the same range; this record follows the book’s emisión. Serial 35555693 falls in that range. Numista cites Hernández 18 and TBB B922b. BanRep’s annual banknote production tables begin in 1960; there is no denomination total for 1940.
Face
Back
The note
The Banco de la República ordered this one-peso oro of the Pick 380 family (1929–1954) from the American Bank Note Company in New York. The face, blue on a multicolour underprint, carries at left the portrait of Francisco de Paula Santander and a standing allegorical figure, at center the figure 1 with the legend “UN PESO ORO,” and at right the bust of Simón Bolívar. The serials are in red: 35555693, once at upper right and once at lower left. The legend “SERIE R” appears twice, flanking the central 1; catalogues describe it in red, distinct from the blue Series R of 1944 and 1945. The printed date is “BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA. / 20 DE JULIO DE 1940.” The signatures are those of Julio Caro (gerente) and Mariano Ospina Vásquez (secretario), the pair Numista assigns to this date (JC, MOV). The blue back shows Liberty’s head in a medallion reading “BANCO DE LA REPUBLICA • BOGOTÁ COLOMBIA,” the figures 1 at each flank, and the imprint “AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY.” Type 380b, per the Bank Note Museum, covers 20.07.1940 only. González White 2019 places this eight-digit Series R on BG# 021. The number 35555693 shows four 5s in a row and remains an ordinary serial of the emission. The “peso oro” legend is still on this 1940 paper; the Casa de Moneda Museum records that gold convertibility of the peso ended in 1931. It is not the 1945 blue Series R 1 peso oro, Pick 380d (serial 85688116), nor the 1954 Series HH note, Pick 380g (serial 52170492), nor the Boyacá commemorative 1-peso (Waterlow, Pick 398) or the Imprenta de Billetes blue 1-peso (Pick 404). This collection piece is shown circulated and unslabbed: a center fold, corner wear, and uneven paper tone are visible.
Scarcity and printage
González White 2019 (BG# 021, p. 33) publishes 24,000,000 notes for 20 July 1940, eight-digit Series R, serials 22,000,001–46,000,000. That interval counts 24,000,000 numbers. Numista groups the 1929–1954 design under N# 207727, assigns the date to Pick 380b / TBB B922b / Hernández 18 / BG# 021, describes Series R in red, and marks its frequency at 14% among owners of the type; it prints 22,000,000 for the same range. This record follows González White’s emisión. The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 380b as the 20.07.1940 date of the ABNC 1 peso oro: Santander and Bolívar on the face, Liberty on the back. It is neither a proof nor a specimen. The four consecutive 5s in serial 35555693 do not open another catalogue row. This record does not replace that BG# emisión with a BanRep denomination-year total. Price columns are not published.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 35555693 has not been independently verified. The note is shown circulated and unslabbed.
Sources
- Bank Note Museum — Colombia P-380, 1 peso oro (1929–1954) (opens in a new tab)
380b: 20.07.1940; Santander, an allegorical figure, and Bolívar on the face; Liberty on the back; ABNC.
- Numista — Colombia 1 peso oro, N# 207727 (opens in a new tab)
20.07.1940: P# 380b / TBB B922b; Hernández 18; BG# 021; Series R in red; eight digits, 22,000,001–46,000,000; signatures JC and MOV; 140 × 70 mm; 14% frequency within the type. Numista prints 22,000,000; the book’s interval counts 24,000,000.
- Stack’s Bowers & Ponterio, August 2018, lot 43018 (opens in a new tab)
Attributes 20 July 1940 to Pick 380b, with eight-digit numbering. A type comparable. It is not provenance for this piece, and no price is published.
- Pedro Pablo Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia (Numista L100183) (opens in a new tab)
8th ed. 2023 (Numista L100183). Numista cites Hernández 18 for 20 July 1940.
- Banrepcultural — Casa de Moneda Museum (opens in a new tab)
The museum’s numismatic collection booklet records that gold convertibility of the peso ended in 1931. The 1940 “peso oro” legend is not proof that this note could be redeemed in metal.
Related pieces
Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.
