from 1993
Modern families
The end of the gold peso, the Valledupar heist, and the 2016 family.
From 1993 Banco de la República notes dropped the legend “pesos oro”: the currency’s name returned to simply the peso. On 16–17 October 1994 — the “robo del siglo,” the robbery of the century — thieves entered the vault of the Valledupar branch and took some 24.072 billion pesos, in 2,000-, 5,000-, and 10,000-peso notes, much of it still unissued. The bank published the serial ranges — popularly called “billetes vallenatos” — opened an exchange for good-faith holders, and quickly demonetized those three families. Between 1995 and 1996 it replaced them with a new family; the uncirculated 1993 and 1994 dates of those denominations were cut short by that swap. In 2016 it put another family into circulation — 2,000 to 100,000 — with stronger security and the check slogan “Look, touch, tilt, turn, and verify.” That family moves beyond independence heroes: the 20,000 honors Alfonso López Michelsen under Law 1599 of 2012 and the 50,000 honors Gabriel García Márquez under article 5 of Law 1741 of 2014; the program also honors biodiversity and indigenous cultures, with figures such as Virginia Gutiérrez and Débora Arango. Records of that family note optically variable inks, a motion thread that reveals the initials BRC, and ultraviolet reactions — including Victoria amazonica and the burgao snail — when the example shows them. This case documents the 2015 2,000 pesos (Pick 458a / TBB B993a), fancy serial AA40000066, and the 2017 20,000 pesos (Pick 461 / TBB B996c), serial AF51355141.
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).