This site is a work in progress, and I’m refreshing the images from my collection so they look their best. If you don’t find the piece you came for just yet, thanks for your patience — I’m glad you’re here.

NOTOFILIA Numismatics and Notaphily
ES — Spanish EN — English
Vintage illustrated panoramic of Bogotá on parchment, with the neoclassical Banco Hipotecario building captioned 1910 in the artwork and the title Bogotá

Colombia · Free banking · ABNC proofs

5 pesos · Banco Hipotecario · 1881

A pair of American Bank Note Company proofs: face S511p1 and back S511p2, both slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated. Series Y, serial 00000.

Catalog facts

Pick reference
P# S511p1 / S511p2
Serial number
Y 00000
Signatures
Unsigned (printer’s proofs)
Condition
Face PMG 61 Uncirculated · Back PMG 61 Uncirculated
Printage
American Bank Note Company, New York. Printer’s mount dated February 1883; Series Y. Date printed on the face: Bogotá, 1 October 1881. No circulating printage is published.

Face

Download JPEG. A download will start.

Face proof, Pick S511p1, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: agricultural allegories, serial Y 00000, and a mount dated February 1883.

Face proof, Pick S511p1, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: agricultural allegories, serial Y 00000, and a mount dated February 1883.
Face proof, Pick S511p1, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: agricultural allegories, serial Y 00000, and a mount dated February 1883.

Back

Download JPEG. A download will start.

Back proof, Pick S511p2, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: a sepia ornamental frame, the figures 5, and the legends EL BANCO / HIPOTECARIO.

Back proof, Pick S511p2, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: a sepia ornamental frame, the figures 5, and the legends EL BANCO / HIPOTECARIO.
Back proof, Pick S511p2, slabbed PMG 61 Uncirculated: a sepia ornamental frame, the figures 5, and the legends EL BANCO / HIPOTECARIO.

The note

The Banco Hipotecario was established in Bogotá on 1 October 1881 — the same date printed on the face. EL TIEMPO places the founding there, with a ten-year term from the registration of the deeds. In June 1882 the State Executive approved the statutes and declared the bank in possession of the concessions that the laws of 14 January 1873 and 17 November 1875 granted to mortgage banks; the text was published in July 1882. The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money — Specialized Issues, through Numismondo’s index, numbers the series S511–S515: five to one hundred pesos of 1881. This record is the five-peso. The face, black on an ochre underprint, promises to pay the bearer on sight five pesos; at left, a seated agricultural allegory beside sheaves; at right, a ploughman with horses; above, an oval of field and homestead; below, a 5 in a medallion. The red serial is 00000; three cancellation punches cut the lower margin. The New York mount reads “February 1883” and, vertically, “Serie Y.” The spaces for the manager and the president of the board are blank. The sepia back is a guilloche frame with “EL BANCO” and “HIPOTECARIO” and the figures 5 at each flank. There are no signatures: these are plate proofs, not a note placed in circulation. It should not be confused with the Banco Hipotecario de la Mutualidad (S516 and later) or with the Pacífico bank. This record gathers the collection’s two PMG holders — face and back, separately slabbed.

Scarcity and printage

Numismondo records S511–S515 as the 1881 Banco Hipotecario series and flags the images as needed. The market for this Bogotá bank mostly sees New York plates: mounted, punch-cancelled proofs with zero serials. This record does not invent a circulating printage.

Population

The two pieces in this record are slabbed by PMG as 61 Uncirculated: the face S511p1 and the back S511p2. A population census for these holder numbers has not been independently verified.

Sources

← Colombia · Free banking