Colombia · Banco de la República · ABNC
2 pesos oro · Banco de la República · 1944 and 1955
Two notes of the Pick 390 family (Camilo Torres): Series I of 20 July 1944 (Pick 390b) and Series GG of 1 January 1955 (Pick 390d). Each has its own catalog facts, note, scarcity and printage, and population on this page.
2 pesos oro · Banco de la República · 1944
A circulating two-peso oro, Pick 390b: Series I, serial 12527403, 20 July 1944. This record gathers the face and back of the same unslabbed note.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P# 390b · TBB B923c
- Serial number
- I 12527403
- Signatures
- Julio Caro (gerente) and Luis Ángel Arango (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 1944. The Bank Note Museum groups type 390b under 20.07.1944, 01.01.1945, and 07.08.1947. Published size: 140 × 70 mm. Numista marks this date as Series I in olive (Hernández 91). No printage is published here.
Face
Back
The note
The Banco de la República ordered this two-peso oro of the Pick 390 family (1942–1955) from the American Bank Note Company in New York. The face, olive green on a multicolour underprint, carries at center the portrait of Camilo Torres Tenorio, named “TORRES” under the oval, and the promise to pay the bearer two gold pesos. The serials are in red: No. 12527403, at both flanks of the portrait. The legend “SERIE I” appears twice in olive, not in the red of the 1942–1943 dates of the same type. The printed date is “BOGOTA, COLOMBIA. / 20 DE JULIO DE 1944.” The signatures are those of Julio Caro (gerente) and Luis Ángel Arango (secretario), the pair Numista assigns to this date (JC, LAA₁) and the pair Banknote World also records on the 1942 390a. The blue back shows Liberty’s head in a medallion reading “BANCO DE LA REPUBLICA • BOGOTÁ COLOMBIA,” the figures 2 at each flank, and the imprint “AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY.” Type 390b, per the Bank Note Museum, covers three dates (1944, 1945, and 1947). The 1950 GG (Pick 390c) is another date; the 1955 close (Pick 390d) is documented on this same page. It is not the Nariño 10 pesos oro (Pick 389). This collection piece is shown in a sleeve, circulated, unslabbed.
Scarcity and printage
The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 390 as a circulating 2-peso oro issue of 1942–1955, engraved by the American Bank Note Company: Torres on the face and Liberty on the back. Letter b groups three dates (1944, 1945, and 1947); Numista places the 20 July 1944 date at about 5% of recorded examples of the type and marks Series I in olive. Numista gives the type a rarity index of 48. It is neither a proof nor a specimen. This record does not invent a printage by date.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 12527403 has not been independently verified. The note is shown in a sleeve, circulated, unslabbed.
2 pesos oro · Banco de la República · 1955
A circulating two-peso oro, Pick 390d: Series GG, eight-digit serial 10739101, 1 January 1955. This record gathers the face and back of the same unslabbed note.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P# 390d · TBB B923g
- Serial number
- GG 10739101
- Signatures
- Luis Ángel Arango (gerente) and Eduardo Arias Robledo (secretario)
- Condition
- Unslabbed (private collection)
- Printage
- American Bank Note Company, New York. Banco de la República circulation issue; date on the note 1 January 1955. The Bank Note Museum numbers type 390d on that date. Published size: 140 × 70 mm. Numista distinguishes, in Series GG, seven-digit serials (Hernández 95) and eight-digit ones (Hernández 96); this piece is eight digits. No printage is published here.
Face
Back
The note
The Banco de la República closed the Pick 390 two-peso oro family on this date, engraved by the American Bank Note Company in New York. The face, olive green on a multicolour underprint, carries at center the portrait of Camilo Torres Tenorio and the promise to pay the bearer two gold pesos. The serials are in red: No. 10739101, at both flanks of the portrait. The legend “SERIE GG” appears twice in black. The printed date is “BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA. / 1° DE ENERO DE 1955.” The signatures are those of Luis Ángel Arango (gerente) and Eduardo Arias Robledo (secretario), the pair Numista assigns to 1955 (LAA₂, EAR). The eight-digit serial is the variety Hernández numbers 96; it is not the seven-digit GG (Hernández 95) or the 1950 GG with Jaime Londoño (Pick 390c). The violet back shows Liberty’s head in a Phrygian cap, in a medallion reading “BANCO DE LA REPUBLICA • BOGOTÁ COLOMBIA,” the figures 2 at each flank, and the imprint “AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY.” It is the same design as this page’s 1944 2 pesos oro (Series I, Pick 390b), not a specimen: the back does not carry a serial. This piece is shown in a sleeve, unslabbed.
Scarcity and printage
The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 390d as the 01.01.1955 date of the 2 pesos oro. Numista groups circulating notes and varieties of the design under N# 232681, with a rarity index of 48, and marks the eight-digit GG’s frequency at 17% among owners of the type, against 60% for the seven-digit GG. It is neither a proof nor a specimen. This record does not invent a printage.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial 10739101 has not been independently verified. The note is shown in a sleeve, unslabbed.
Sources
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Bank Note Museum — Colombia P-390, 2 pesos oro (1942–1955)
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390b: 20.07.1944, 01.01.1945, and 07.08.1947; Camilo Torres on the face, Liberty on the back; ABNC.
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Numista — Colombia 2 pesos oro, N# 232681
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20.07.1944: P# 390b / TBB B923c; Hernández 91; Series I in olive; signatures JC and LAA₁; 140 × 70 mm; 5% frequency within the type.
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Banknote World — Colombia 2 pesos oro 1942, P-390a.1
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Same ABNC design: Camilo Torres and Liberty; 140 × 70 mm; Julio Caro and Luis Ángel Arango on 1942.
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Pedro Pablo Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia (Numista L100183)
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A standard catalog; Numista cites Hernández 91 for 20 July 1944.
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Banknote World — Colombia 2 pesos oro 1955, P-390d
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Date 01.01.1955; ABNC; 140 × 70 mm; Torres on the face, Liberty on the back.
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Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Paper money in Colombia
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Free banking, Regeneración, Banco Nacional, the 1905 Banco Central, the Kemmerer Mission, and the 1931 end of convertibility.
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Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Financing independence
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Records the 1813 Cartagena 1-real signed by Gutiérrez de Piñeres.
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Banco de la República — History of the Bank
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Law 25 of 1923, mixed capital, monopoly of issue, and the early opening on 23 July.
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Banco de la República — 1973 reform
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Law 7 and Decree 2617: the state acquired nearly all private shares.
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Banco de la República — 60 years of the Imprenta de Billetes
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23 October 1959; first job: the 1-peso printed in Bogotá.
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Banco de la República — Banknote and coin production and circulation
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Official tables: annual banknote production by denomination (1960–2022), Imprenta deliveries to Tesorería (2010–2022), and coin production. A year-and-face-value total is not the printage of one Pick type, date, or variety.
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Banco de la República — Background, evolution, and structure (Meisel et al.)
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The 1886 fiat standard, Law 70 of 1894, Reyes’s Banco Central, the Kemmerer Mission, and the 1923 opening.
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Adolfo Meisel Roca — Background to the Banco de la República, 1904–1922
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Postwar stabilization, projects for a bank of issue, and the setting in which Reyes created the Banco Central.
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Historical evolution of the Banco de la República (SciELO; citing Hernández, 2001)
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The 1905 Banco Central as a bank of issue; in 1909 its privilege was suspended and it became a private bank.
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HiSTOReLo — Núñez, Caro, and the Banco Nacional (1886–1903)
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Decree 104 and Law 87 of 1886 (fiat monetary unit); Law 70 of 1894 and closure in 1896.
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Astrid Romero — La Regeneración and the Banco Nacional (1991)
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Established in 1881; forced tender from 1886; final liquidation in 1896.
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Banco de Bogotá — Our Bank
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Founded 15 November 1870; the country’s first commercial bank.
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Portafolio — The Banco de Bogotá was born with the right to issue notes
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15 November 1870; statutes: bearer notes in proportion to metal in the till.
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Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Money issue
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Forced tender, the Thousand Days’ War, the 1909 Conversion Board, and Banco Nacional paper still circulating in the 1910s.
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El Espectador — Twenty-five years after the “robo del siglo” (2019)
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Valledupar, 16–17 October 1994; some 24.072 billion pesos; exchange and redesign of the 2,000, 5,000, and 10,000 in 1995–1996.
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Banco de la República — Press release: new banknote family (25 September 2015)
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The 2016 family (2,000 to 100,000): biodiversity, culture, and the homage to Gabriel García Márquez.
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Banrepcultural — The new Colombian banknote family
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Theme of each denomination: landscapes, indigenous cultures, and figures of culture, science, and politics.
- Bank Note Museum — Colombia (states, Republic, and Banco de la República) (opens in a new tab)
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Bank Note Museum — Colombia, Banco de la República
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Pick index: 1923 provisionals, pesos oro, and the 1959 series (P-404).