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NOTOFILIA Numismatics and Notaphily
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Colombia · Errors · Mismatched serials

50,000 pesos · numbering error · 2008

A Jorge Isaacs fifty-thousand-peso note, Pick 455l / TBB B992l: date 5 September 2008, with a numbering error — the two face serials do not match. At upper left, in black, 72461316; at lower left, in red, 72411316. The fourth digit changes from 6 to 1. This record gathers the face and back of the same circulated, unslabbed note, in a sleeve.

Catalog facts

Pick reference
P# 455l / TBB B992l
Serial number
72461316 / 72411316
Signatures
José Darío Uribe Escobar (gerente general) and Gerardo Hernández Correa (gerente ejecutivo)
Condition
Unslabbed · in a sleeve · circulated · numbering error (mismatched serials)
Printage
Imprenta de Billetes, Banco de la República, Bogotá. Printed in inks on paper. Date printed on the face, under the signatures: 5 September 2008. Size 140 × 70 mm; eight digits, no series letter. González White 2019 lists that date among the Jorge Isaacs 50,000s (pp. 138–139) and marks the emisión N.D. The Bank Note Museum numbers 05.09.2008 as Pick 455l. Numista assigns TBB B992l, Hernández# 657, and the JDUE / GHC pair. BanRep’s 2008 production of 50,000-peso notes is 171 million pieces: 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

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Face of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: Isaacs, María, the date 5 September 2008, and serials 72461316 (black) and 72411316 (red), which do not match.

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Face of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: Isaacs, María, the date 5 September 2008, and serials 72461316 (black) and 72411316 (red), which do not match.
Face of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: Isaacs, María, the date 5 September 2008, and serials 72461316 (black) and 72411316 (red), which do not match.

Back

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Back of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: the excerpt from María, the palms, Hacienda El Paraíso, and the Banco de la República seal.

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Back of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: the excerpt from María, the palms, Hacienda El Paraíso, and the Banco de la República seal.
Back of the 50,000 pesos, Pick 455l: the excerpt from María, the palms, Hacienda El Paraíso, and the Banco de la República seal.

The note

The Jorge Isaacs fifty-thousand, in the vertical 140 × 70 mm format, is Pick 455 (2001–2014) / TBB B992, printed by the Imprenta de Billetes. González White numbers the type in the Isaacs 50,000 listings. The first design, 7 August 2000, is Pick 449, with the legend Santa Fe de Bogotá; from 1 May 2001 the place of printing drops off and the Standard Catalog moves to 455. This piece carries “5 DE SEPTIEMBRE DE 2008” on the face under the signatures — 455l — and the Imprenta de Billetes imprint. The signatures are those of José Darío Uribe Escobar, general manager, and Gerardo Hernández Correa, executive manager: the pair Numista assigns to the 2008 dates, before the change to José Tolosa in 2011. The face, in greens, violets, and ochres, shows María above, the open book, and Isaacs below; at left, the two vertical numberings. On an ordinary example those two serials are identical: eight digits, no prefix. Here they are not. The upper one, in black ink, reads 72461316; the lower one, in red ink, reads 72411316. Only the fourth digit changes (6 versus 1). Neither is a low serial or a collector pattern (radar, binary, solid, or ladder): what distinguishes the piece is the error, not the type. It is a numbering maculature — two numbering heads that did not agree — not a design variety and not over-inking. The back carries the excerpt from María, the palms, Hacienda El Paraíso, and the Liberty seal. It should not be confused with the García Márquez 50,000 (Pick 462), with the sister date 04.09.2008 (455k), or with this case’s 2015 numbering error (serial AB69350427), whose two serials match and left the press filled with ink. This record gathers both sides of the same unslabbed note, in a sleeve.

The bank

Jorge Isaacs (Cali, 1837 – Ibagué, 1895), author of María (1867), has occupied the Banco de la República fifty-thousand since the first date, 7 August 2000, put into circulation on 1 December 2000. The face pairs his portrait with the figure of María; the back, Hacienda El Paraíso — the novel’s setting — and a fragment of the text. Óscar Muñoz designed the motifs. The type ran through 2014; in 2016 the García Márquez 50,000 joined it, and later replaced it in circulation. This record does not document an ordinary circulating example: it documents a numbering maculature that escaped with the two serials different.

Scarcity and printage

González White 2019 (pp. 138–139) publishes no emisión figure for 5 September 2008 (N.D.). The Bank Note Museum describes Pick 455 as the 2001–2014 140 × 70 mm type and marks 455l for that date. Numista groups the design under N# 208162, with a rarity index of 26, and marks the 05.09.2008 date’s frequency at 0.3% among owners of the type; that figure is for the ordinary date, not for maculatures. BanRep’s annual production table assigns 171 million pieces to every 50,000-peso note of 2008: that is not the printage of one date, signature pair, or numbering error. Two serials that do not match are a showcase piece; this record does not invent a population for that error.

Population

A PMG or PCGS census for serials 72461316 / 72411316 has not been independently verified. The note is shown in a sleeve, circulated, with a horizontal fold, unslabbed. The error is a production fault, not a grading certificate.

Sources

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