Colombia · Banco de la República · Waterlow
1 peso oro · Banco de la República · 1959
A circulating one-peso oro of the Boyacá type, Pick 398: Series A, serial 60870843, printed date 9 August 1959. This record gathers the face and back of the same note, in a sleeve, unslabbed.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P# 398 · TBB B938
- Serial number
- A 60870843
- Signatures
- Gerente and secretario (names not read with certainty from this sleeve)
- Condition
- Circulated, in a sleeve, unslabbed (private collection)
- Printage
- Waterlow & Sons Limited, London, face and back. Banco de la República circulation issue; date printed on the note: Bogotá, 9 August 1959. Published size of the type: 140 × 70 mm. Series A, eight-digit serial 60870843. González White 2019 numbers the Boyacá commemorative as BG# 043 (p. 37): 7 August 1953, Series A, eight digits, emisión 100,000,000, serials 00.000.001–100.000.000, printer Waterlow. That row does not list 9 August 1959; this record does not invent a BG# for that date. Serial 60870843 falls in the published BG# 043 range. The Bank Note Museum and Numista date Pick 398 / TBB B938 / Hernández 44 to 7.8.1953. BanRep’s annual banknote production tables begin in 1960; there is no denomination total for 1959.
Face
Back
The note
The Banco de la República ordered this one-peso oro of the commemorative type for the Battle of Boyacá (7 August 1819) from Waterlow & Sons Limited, London. The face, blue on a multicolour underprint, carries at left the statue of Simón Bolívar — González White identifies it as Tenerani’s — at center the Puente de Boyacá, captioned on the engraving, and at right the circular portrait of Francisco de Paula Santander in uniform, which the same catalogue attributes to Ricardo Acevedo Bernal’s oil. The serials are in red: 60870843, once at upper right and once at lower left. The series letter A appears twice. The printed date, at right, is “BOGOTA / COLOMBIA / 9 DE AGOSTO / DE 1959.” The face and back imprints both read “WATERLOW & SONS LIMITED. LONDRES.” The blue back shows Liberty’s head with a Phrygian cap inscribed “LIBERTAD” and the figures 1 at each flank. The titles under the signatures are GERENTE and SECRETARIO; the names cannot be read with certainty through the sleeve and are not published here. Numista assigns Luis Ángel Arango and Eduardo Arias Robledo (LAA, EAR) to the type date 7.8.1953; that attribution is not applied to this piece without an independent reading. It is not the American Bank Note Company Santander-and-Bolívar 1-peso (Pick 380) or the Imprenta de Billetes blue 1-peso (Pick 404), whose first Bogotá job was 23 October 1959. This collection piece is shown in a clear collector’s sleeve, circulated, without a PMG or NGC holder and without a certificate number.
Scarcity and printage
González White 2019 (BG# 043, p. 37) publishes 100,000,000 notes for 7 August 1953, eight-digit Series A, serials 00.000.001–100.000.000, and notes that until 1959 it was the bank’s largest issue since its founding. The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 398 as that date, Waterlow, with the bridge on the face and Liberty on the back. Numista groups the type under N# 213495 (P# 398 / TBB B938 / Hernández 44 / BG# 43) and lists only 7.8.1953, Series A. This piece carries the date 9 August 1959; no separate printage is published for that date. It is neither a proof nor a specimen. This record does not replace the BG# emisión with a BanRep denomination-year total.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 60870843 has not been independently verified. The note is shown in a sleeve, circulated, unslabbed.
Sources
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Bank Note Museum — Colombia P-398, 1 peso oro (7.8.1953)
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398: 07.08.1953; Bolívar statue, Boyacá bridge, and Santander on the face; Liberty on the back; Waterlow, London.
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Numista — Colombia 1 peso oro, N# 213495
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07.08.1953: P# 398 / TBB B938; Hernández 44; BG# 43; Series A; signatures LAA and EAR on that type date; 140 × 70 mm; printer Waterlow.
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Banknote World — Colombia 1 peso oro, 1953, P-398
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08.07.1953; Waterlow & Sons Limited, London; 140 × 70 mm.
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Pedro Pablo Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia (Numista L100183)
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8th ed. 2023 (Numista L100183). Numista cites Hernández 44 for the Pick 398 type; that H# is not replaced by a 2023 Cód.