Colombia · Errors · Butterfly cut
5,000 pesos note, 2010
5,000 pesos · butterfly-cut error · 2010
Two José Asunción Silva five-thousand-peso notes, Pick 452l / TBB B989m: date 31 July 2010 and serials 09629901 and 09636101, each with a butterfly-cut fold-over that projects from the top margin. One record: one facts block and one type essay; both faces of each serial stacked below.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P# 452l / TBB B989m
- Serial numbers
- 09629901 / 09636101
- Signatures
- José Darío Uribe Escobar (gerente general) and Gerardo Hernández Correa (gerente ejecutivo)
- Condition
- Unslabbed · apparently uncirculated · butterfly-cut error
- Printage
- Imprenta de Billetes, Banco de la República, Bogotá. Date printed on the face, under the signatures: 31 July 2010. Published size 140 × 70 mm; eight digits, no series letter; both serials on the face. These two pieces also keep a triangular sheet-margin flap that extends beyond the top edge. González White 2019 numbers the date BG# 541 (p. 128): IBBR, Silva, emisión N.D.; it notes Braille and circulation on 1 February 2011. The Bank Note Museum lists 31.07.2010 as Pick 452l. Numista assigns TBB B989m and Hernández# 570, with Braille in the watermark area. BanRep’s 2010 production of 5,000-peso notes is 98.149 million pieces, and Tesorería delivery that year matches: that is every note of that face value that year, not the printage of this date or this error. No printage is published here.
Example 09629901
Face
Back
Example 09636101
Face
Back
The note
The José Asunción Silva five-thousand in the 140 × 70 mm format is Pick 452 (2001–2014) / TBB B989, printed by the Banco de la República’s Imprenta de Billetes, in inks on paper. It is not the Núñez–Caro five-thousand, nor the New Family type (Pick 459). González White opens the Núñez type on 5 August 1986 (p. 124) and places the Silva type from 1 March 1995 to 2 August 2014 (pp. 126–128); some 1995 dates came from Thomas De La Rue. This date, 31 July 2010, is BG# 541 (p. 128), IBBR, which the Bank Note Museum marks 452l. The signatures are those of José Darío Uribe Escobar, general manager, and Gerardo Hernández Correa, executive manager: the pair Numista assigns to the 2005–2010 dates, before the change to José Tolosa in 2011 (TBB B989m; Hernández# 570). Serials 09629901 and 09636101 each appear twice on the face — in black at upper right and in red at left — eight digits, no prefix. They are not low serials and not a collector pattern (radar, binary, solid, or ladder). The face, in greens and ochres, shows Silva at right; González White (p. 129) notes the allusions to his poems with a cicada and a frog, the 5000, and the legend “CINCO MIL PESOS.” The back, in blue, carries the tree alley, the female figure, the pedestal with the microprinted fragment of “Nocturno,” and the Liberty seal; the imprint is that of the Imprenta de Billetes. Numista notes Braille in the watermark area from 2009; González White records Braille on this date and circulation on 1 February 2011. What distinguishes these pieces is the error, not the type: an as-made fold left a triangular flap of sheet margin attached to the top edge. Intaglio and the background tints continue onto that flap: the fold happened after the sheet was printed and before the cut. On the back, beside the break in the rectangle, the sheet’s control color bars remain — material the factory guillotine was meant to discard. A fold before printing would leave the flap blank; that is not the case here. In Colombian notaphily Hernández calls that paper wing a mariposa (butterfly). They should not be confused with 1 August 2010 (452m), with 21.08.2009 (452k), with the New Family five-thousand (Pick 459), or with this case’s 2011 1,000-peso butterfly (serial 11508701). Two distinct objects of the same date and the same error: 09629901 is not 09636101. This record gathers both sides of each unslabbed note.
The bank
José Asunción Silva (Bogotá, 1865–1896) has occupied the Banco de la República five-thousand since the commemorative issue for the centenary of his death and, in circulation, since the 1995 dates. The previous type of the denomination, Núñez and Caro, appeared on 5 August 1986. In October 1994 the Valledupar robbery took 2,200,000 notes of that family’s #510 (González White, p. 125); the bank replaced the 5,000 in 1995. Juan Cárdenas signed the Silva engraving: a cicada and a frog on the face; on the back, the tree alley and “Nocturno” in microprint. The type ran through 2014; in 2016 it was joined, and later replaced in circulation, by the New Family 5,000, still with Silva. This record does not document an ordinary circulating example: it documents two maculatures that escaped the cut with the sheet margin still attached.
Scarcity and printage
González White 2019 (BG# 541, p. 128) publishes no emisión figure for 31 July 2010 (N.D.). The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 452 as the 2001–2014 140 × 70 mm type and marks 452l for that date. Numista groups the design under N# 208014 and marks the 31.07.2010 date’s frequency at 5% among owners of the type; that figure is for the ordinary date, not for maculatures. BanRep’s annual production table assigns 98.149 million pieces to every 5,000-peso note of 2010, and the Tesorería delivery table the same total: that is not the printage of one date, signature pair, or cutting error. Two butterfly notes that still carry the sheet’s color bars are showcase pieces; this record does not invent a population for that error.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census has not been independently verified for 09629901 or 09636101. Both notes are shown unslabbed, apparently uncirculated. The error is a production fault, not a grading certificate.
Sources
- Bank Note Museum — Colombia P-452, 5,000 pesos (2001–2014) (opens in a new tab)
Silva type, Imprenta de Billetes; Silva on the face, tree alley and figure on the back. This piece is 31.07.2010 (452l). The catalogue marks 452m as 01.08.2010 and corrects a non-existent 01.09.2010.
- Numista — Colombia 5,000 pesos (new bank seal), N# 208014 (opens in a new tab)
31.07.2010 date: P# 452l, TBB B989m, Hernández# 570; signatures JDUE and GHC; Braille in the watermark area; 5% frequency within the type. Price columns are not published here.
- Banco de la República — Banknote and coin production and circulation (opens in a new tab)
2010 production of 5,000-peso notes: 98.149 million pieces. Tesorería deliveries that year: 98.149 million (denomination totals for the year, not one Pick date or error).