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

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. Hernández (8th ed., 2023) places the founding in the 1880s and liquidation before 1914, and numbers this ABNC five-peso — seated woman at left, horses at right — as Cód. 1134. 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.

The bank

Under free banking the government authorized private banks to issue notes backed by metal. Bogotá’s Banco Hipotecario was established on 1 October 1881, with a ten-year term from the registration of the deeds; Hernández records liquidation before 1914. It was a bank of propiedad raíz: mortgage credit to landowners, merchants, and the capital’s urban elite. The laws of 14 January 1873 and 17 November 1875 granted concessions to those banks — tax exemption, privileged foreclosure; in June 1882 the State Executive approved the statutes and declared the bank in possession of them. The 1881 series promises to pay the bearer on sight, in Bogotá. Numismondo numbers S511–S515, five to one hundred pesos; the Eldorado collection, at Stack’s Bowers (January 2018), offered archival proofs of the 5, 10, 50, and 100 pesos (S511p, S512p, S514p, and S515p). This record is the five-peso. Rafael Núñez’s Regeneración and the Banco Nacional, established in 1881, centralized issue: around 1886–1887 forced legal tender and laws that monopolized paper stripped private banks of the right to print. Without that faculty, and forced to take depreciating national paper, Bogotá’s private banks — including the Hipotecario — lost a source of profit and operational independence.

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, sometimes uncut pairs. The Eldorado collection offered archival proofs from 5 to 100 pesos. Survivors — proofs, specimens, and those pairs — are showcase pieces in Colombian notaphily. 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.