Colombia · Errors · Butterfly cut

5,000 pesos · butterfly-cut error · 2010

A José Asunción Silva five-thousand-peso note, Pick 452l / TBB B989m: date 31 July 2010 and serial 09636101, with a butterfly-cut fold-over that projects from the top margin. This record gathers the face and back of the same unslabbed note.

Catalog facts

Pick reference: P# 452l / TBB B989m
Serial number: 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. This piece also keeps 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.

Face of the 5,000 pesos, Pick 452l: Silva, the date 31 July 2010, serial 09636101, and the butterfly flap on the top edge.

Back of the 5,000 pesos, Pick 452l: the tree alley, the female figure, “Nocturno,” and the same flap, with the sheet-margin color bars.

The note

The José Asunción Silva five-thousand in the 140 × 70 mm format is Pick 452 (2001–2014) / TBB B989, printed by the Imprenta de Billetes. González White numbers this date BG# 541 (p. 128); the Bank Note Museum marks it 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). Serial 09636101 appears twice on the face — in black at upper right and in red at left — eight digits, no prefix. It is not a low serial and not a collector pattern (radar, binary, solid, or ladder). The face, in greens and ochres, shows Silva at right, with the frog and winged insect that allude to his poetry, 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 this date into circulation on 1 February 2011. What distinguishes this piece is the error, not the type: a triangular flap of sheet margin remained attached to the top edge. On the back, beside that break in the rectangle, the sheet’s control color bars remain: material the factory cut was meant to discard. In Colombian notaphily Hernández calls that paper wing a mariposa (butterfly); the as-made fold that left it attached is a production error, not a design variety. It 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). This record gathers both sides of the same 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 (1996) and, in this circulating family, since the 2001 dates. The face combines his portrait with the frog and winged insect; the back, the tree alley and “Nocturno.” Juan Cárdenas signed the engraving. 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 a maculature 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. A butterfly note that still carries the sheet’s color bars is a showcase piece; this record does not invent a population for that error.

Population

A PMG or PCGS census for serial 09636101 has not been independently verified. The note is 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).

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