Colombia · Banco Nacional · Departmental cédula
1 peso note, 1901
1 peso · Departamento del Tolima · 1901
A one-peso cédula representativa of the Departamento del Tolima: Republic of Colombia, Ibagué, September 1901, Series D, serial N.º 060.416. Hernández (8th ed., 2023) numbers the department’s typeset one-peso — text only on the face — as Cód. 1242. This record is serial 060416, in a sleeve, unslabbed.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- Cód. 1242
- Serial number
- 060.416
- Signatures
- No printed signatures
- Condition
- Unslabbed · in a sleeve · heavily circulated (stains, folds, foxing)
- Printage
- Local typesetting, Departamento del Tolima. Printed date: Ibagué, September 1901. Series D. Printed serial N.º 060.416 (normalized 060416; leading zeros are kept). No printage is published: this is not a Banco de la República type (1923–2019), and BanRep’s annual banknote production tables begin in 1960.
Face
Back
The note
In the Thousand Days’ War (1899–1902) departmental treasuries issued their own paper when the link to Bogotá failed. José Arcelio Gómez’s Boletín Numismático 114 (15 August 2012) places Tolima’s issues between 1900 and 1902, printed on ordinary papers in a single ink: ten, twenty, and fifty centavos, and one peso. Hernández (8th ed., 2023) lists the department’s typeset paper as Cód. 1239–1243; the one-peso — “text only on the face” — is Cód. 1242. Neighbouring rows in that table carry July 1900 dates; the date printed on this piece is “Ibagué, Septiembre de 1901.” No unique Pick is assigned here: Gómez cites 1169, 1173, 1181, and 1191 for Tolima one-peso issues, without matching this Series D or this serial to one of them. Numismondo groups departmental issues under P.S1050 and later, with images still needed. Numista lists no banknote for the State or Departamento del Tolima — only an 1890 2-centavo pattern (N# 281840). This collection’s Heritage extract records no Tolima lots. The face, black on browned paper, reads “REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA” and “DEPARTAMENTO DEL TOLIMA,” the type “Cédula representativa.,” the value “VALE UN PESO,” and, below, “Ibagué, Septiembre de 1901.” Serial “N.º 060.416” sits at upper left; “Serie D” at upper right. The ornamental frame repeats “UNPESO.” A faded reddish circular stamp partly covers the heading. The back is aged tan paper with a large bright-red circular seal, stains, fold lines, and faint manuscript at left. There are no printed signatures and no printer’s imprint. It should not be confused with the Banco del Tolima of Neiva (deed of 23 June 1881; authorized capital 200,000 pesos; liquidated before 1905), with private-bank mortgage cédulas, or with Antioquia treasury one-peso notes (Pick S1065 and kin). This record gathers both sides of the same heavily circulated note, in a clear sleeve, unslabbed.
Treasury and free banking
After the Banco Nacional was wound up (Law 70 of 1894; a closure Astrid Romero places on 1 January 1896), the Thousand Days’ War again filled the country with unbacked paper. The government and regional commanders printed; the Casa de Moneda Museum records Gobierno Provisional notes from Ocaña (1900) and Nacional overstamps on private paper. Tolima, isolated in the centre of the country, turned to its treasury: Gómez describes those cédulas as local, scarce, single-ink issues. In 1909 the Conversion Board rated 100 paper pesos to 1 gold peso. This piece — one peso, Series D, serial 060416, Ibagué, September 1901 — is a survivor of that inflation, not a Banco de la República note and not a Banco del Tolima note. That private free-banking house was seated in Neiva, not Ibagué. In the nineteenth century the Sovereign State of Tolima included the territory that is now Huila; Neiva was a commercial hinge on the Magdalena. Gómez (Boletín Numismático 83) reads on an 1882 one-peso of that bank the constitution legend: a deed before principal notary Nicolás Buendía D., 23 June 1881, no. 851. Andrade Navia, citing La Estrella del Tolima, places the public notice of the founding in early 1882. Meisel and Romero list the house in Neiva, 1881, with an authorized capital of 200,000 pesos and liquidation before 1905. That authorized capital was not fully paid: Andrade records 79,600 pesos subscribed at founding — 50 percent paid in at the start — and 120,400 held in reserve; four years later, on the eve of liquidation, reserved shares still stood at 119,400. Helguera, citing Davis’s Historical Dictionary of Colombia (1993), places forty-two banks in the country by 1881: Tolima’s was one of them, not an isolated case. In 1883 — not 1881 — La Estrella del Tolima (no. 48) advertised that the bank was buying bills of exchange on a standing basis on Bogotá and Honda: mercantile discount, distinct from the 1901 treasury paper. Gómez records an 1882 one-peso dated at Neiva (serial 00,836, Litografía D. Paredes) and cites Pick 859 for an 1882 ten-peso; this record is not that issue. Banco del Tolima did not merge with Banco del Huila, Banco Social del Tolima, Banco del Cauca, or Banco de Santander: those were other houses — Social del Tolima was founded in Ibagué in 1917; Huila in Neiva in 1919 — later acquired by Banco de Bogotá between 1925 and 1928.
Scarcity and printage
Gómez (2012) calls Tolima’s 1900–1902 pieces quite rare and publishes no printages. Hernández numbers the typeset one-peso as Cód. 1242; price columns and plates are not republished here. Numista has no banknote record for this issuer. The Heritage extract supplies no Tolima comparables. This record does not invent a printage.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 060416 has not been independently verified. The note is unslabbed.
Sources
- Pedro Pablo Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia (Numista L100183) (opens in a new tab)
8th ed. 2023: Departamento del Tolima, Cód. 1239–1243; the typeset one-peso (“text only on the face”) is Cód. 1242. Price columns and plates are not published here.
- José Arcelio Gómez — Boletín Numismático 114 (15 August 2012) (opens in a new tab)
Tolima departmental issues, 1900–1902: 10, 20, and 50 centavos and one peso (cites Pick 1169, 1173, 1181, and 1191 for the peso). Local printing, one ink. None of those numbers is assigned here to this Series D.
- José Arcelio Gómez — Boletín Numismático 83 (Banco del Tolima, Neiva) (opens in a new tab)
Deed of constitution before Nicolás Buendía D., 23 June 1881, no. 851. An 1882 one-peso dated at Neiva, serial 00,836, Litografía D. Paredes; Pick 859 for an 1882 ten-peso. This is not the 1901 treasury cédula.
- Numismondo — Colombia paper-money index, departmental issues (opens in a new tab)
P.S1050 and later (1893–1900), images needed. There is no illustrated Tolima 1901 card.
- Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Paper money in Colombia (opens in a new tab)
Thousand Days’ War: unbacked paper from the government and regional commanders.
- Numista — State of Tolima (opens in a new tab)
No banknotes listed. The only object is the 1890 2-centavo pattern (N# 281840), not this cédula.
- Adolfo Meisel Roca — Commercial banks in the free-banking era, 1871–1923 (opens in a new tab)
Table of other regions: Banco del Tolima, Neiva, 1881, capital 200,000 pesos, liquidated before 1905. Banco Social del Tolima (Ibagué, 1917) and Banco de Huila (Neiva, 1919) are listed as other houses.
- Andrade Navia — Trust and banking: the free-banking crisis in the province of Neiva, 1880–1900 (opens in a new tab)
Authorized capital 200,000 pesos; 79,600 subscribed at founding and 120,400 held in reserve; 50 percent paid in at the start. Public notice of founding in early 1882 (La Estrella del Tolima).
- Vanderbilt / Helguera collection — Statutes of the Banco del Tolima (1881) (opens in a new tab)
Statutes pamphlet, 1881. The collection record cites Davis (1993): by 1881 there were forty-two banks in the country.
- María Mercedes Botero — The gold era and the financial sector: Antioquia 1850–1886 (opens in a new tab)
Cites La Estrella del Tolima no. 48, 1883 (Quintero and Centeno, 2007): the bank advertised that it was buying bills of exchange on a standing basis on Bogotá and Honda.
- Mora, Serna, and Serna — Banking entities in Colombia (opens in a new tab)
Table 5: Banco de Bogotá acquired Banco del Huila (1925), Banco Social del Tolima (1927), Banco del Cauca, and Banco de Santander (1928). This is not a merger of the 1881 Banco del Tolima.