1880–1903
Banco Nacional
La Regeneración, the 1886 fiat standard, Law 70 of 1894, and the paper of the Thousand Days’ War.
A Banco Nacional was proposed in March 1880; Law 39 of 1880 and its establishment in 1881 made it part of Rafael Núñez and Miguel Antonio Caro’s Regeneración: to handle state funds, issue notes, and lend to the treasury. At first it coexisted with private issues. In 1886 the government ended convertibility of those bills into metal: Decree 104 defined the paper peso as the monetary unit and unit of account, and Law 87 made it forced legal tender — a fiat standard. Law 57 of 1887 regulated banking nationwide and suspended private banks’ right to issue while the Nacional held the exclusive privilege. A lax, untransparent issuing policy depreciated the bill; clandestine issues finished the collapse of confidence. For those excesses, Law 70 of 1894 ordered the institute liquidated and the paper amortized; Astrid Romero places the final closure on 1 January 1896, after about fifteen years. The Thousand Days’ War (1899–1902) set off another surge of unbacked paper — from the government and from regional commanders — and one of the country’s worst inflations. The Casa de Moneda Museum’s permanent-exhibition booklet records Gobierno Provisional notes printed at Ocaña in 1900. The Issue Board even overstamped private-bank paper with the Nacional’s seal. In 1909 the Conversion Board set 100 paper pesos to 1 gold peso. Even in the early 1910s old Banco Nacional bills still made up a large share of the money supply, despite agencies created to convert and retire them. This case documents a one-peso cédula representativa of the Departamento del Tolima, Ibagué, September 1901, serial N.º 060.416, Series D (Hernández Cód. 1242).
Pieces from this era
Sources
- Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Paper money in Colombia (opens in a new tab)
Free banking, Regeneración, Banco Nacional, the 1905 Banco Central, the Kemmerer Mission, and the 1931 end of convertibility.
- Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Financing independence (opens in a new tab)
Records the 1813 Cartagena 1-real signed by Gutiérrez de Piñeres. Hernández (8th ed., 2023) lists a 2-reales of 1812 printed at Mompós first.
- Banco de la República — History of the Bank (opens in a new tab)
Law 25 of 1923, mixed capital, monopoly of issue, and the early opening on 23 July; the museum booklet details the weekend overstamp of Medellín certificates.
- Banco de la República — 1973 reform (opens in a new tab)
Law 7 and Decree 2617: the state acquired nearly all private shares.
- Banco de la República — 60 years of the Imprenta de Billetes (opens in a new tab)
23 October 1959; first job: the blue 1-peso printed in Bogotá. The 5-peso of 1961–1981 carries the walls of Cartagena.
- Banco de la República — Background, evolution, and structure (Meisel et al.) (opens in a new tab)
The 1886 fiat standard, Law 70 of 1894, Reyes’s Banco Central, the Kemmerer Mission, and the 1923 opening.
- Adolfo Meisel Roca — Background to the Banco de la República, 1904–1922 (opens in a new tab)
Postwar stabilization, projects for a bank of issue, and the setting in which Reyes created the Banco Central.
- Historical evolution of the Banco de la República (SciELO; citing Hernández, 2001) (opens in a new tab)
The 1905 Banco Central as a bank of issue; in 1909 its privilege was suspended and it became a private bank.
- HiSTOReLo — Núñez, Caro, and the Banco Nacional (1886–1903) (opens in a new tab)
Decree 104 and Law 87 of 1886 (fiat monetary unit); Law 70 of 1894 and closure in 1896.
- Pedro Pablo Hernández — Coins and Banknotes of Colombia, 8th ed. 2023 (Numista L100183) (opens in a new tab)
8th-ed. Cód. numbers (ISBN 978-958-49-7741-0): independence paper at Mompós, Gran Colombia drafts, the 1909–1923 Conversion Board (the 1915 ABNC edition and 1922 bonds), free banking, and Banco de la República notes through 2023 (Un Peso Oro Cód. 45–81). Prices and plates are not published here. Numista’s older H# (91, 95, 96, 199/201) are not replaced by 2023 Cód. numbers.
- Astrid Romero — La Regeneración and the Banco Nacional (1991) (opens in a new tab)
Established in 1881; forced tender from 1886; final liquidation in 1896.
- Banco de Bogotá — Our Bank (opens in a new tab)
Founded 15 November 1870; the country’s first commercial bank.
- Portafolio — The Banco de Bogotá was born with the right to issue notes (opens in a new tab)
15 November 1870; statutes: bearer notes in proportion to metal in the till.
- Banrepcultural Encyclopedia — Money issue (opens in a new tab)
Forced tender, the Thousand Days’ War, the 1909 Conversion Board, the exchange of the 1904 edition for the American 1915 notes, and Banco Nacional paper still circulating in the 1910s.
- El Espectador — Twenty-five years after the “robo del siglo” (2019) (opens in a new tab)
Valledupar, 16–17 October 1994; some 24.072 billion pesos; exchange and redesign of the 2,000, 5,000, and 10,000 in 1995–1996.
- Banco de la República — Press release: new banknote family (25 September 2015) (opens in a new tab)
The 2016 family (2,000 to 100,000): biodiversity, culture, and the homage to Gabriel García Márquez.
- Banrepcultural — The new Colombian banknote family (opens in a new tab)
Theme of each denomination: landscapes, indigenous cultures, and figures of culture, science, and politics.
- Banrepcultural — Casa de Moneda Museum (opens in a new tab)
1996 permanent exhibition: 1923 provisionals, 1932 pesos plata, wartime cut ½-peso notes, and the Imprenta’s first note.
- Bank Note Museum — Colombia (states, Republic, and Banco de la República) (opens in a new tab)
- Bank Note Museum — Colombia, Banco de la República (opens in a new tab)
Pick index: 1923 provisionals, pesos oro, and the 1959 series (P-404).