Coins and currencies
Peso oro
Peso oro
Peso oro is the name of Banco de la República paper from 1923 to 1993. It signalled gold convertibility; that convertibility was lost in 1931, but the legend stayed on the plates. From 1993 the name returned to simply the peso. A 1945 1 peso oro and a 1994 Emberá 10,000-peso note do not carry the same unit in the text: the latter already reads “DIEZ MIL PESOS,” without oro. Confusing those legends is confusing two monetary regimes, not two colours.
González White numbers BanRep types with BG#; Hernández, earlier paper and varieties. BanRep’s annual production tables begin in 1960 and measure denomination-year, not the printage of one Pick. The 1 peso oro of 19 January 1945, Pick 380d, serial R 85688116, falls in BG# 027 (serials 81,000,001–96,000,000). The 1944 2 pesos oro, Pick 390, is another record. The 1960 5 pesos oro specimen, serial 00000000, and the 1980 100 pesos oro specimen, SPECIMEN Nº 027, are sample paper of that same name.
Peso oro is not a mint gold coin. The Utrecht ducat is struck gold; peso oro is a banknote legend. This collection does not publish a generic “peso oro” type: it publishes serials. When the bank dropped the word, later families — Emberá, Policarpa, Isaacs — are already pesos. The glossary fixes that boundary so a 1994 note is not read as if it still promised metal.
After 1993, pesos oro in a sale listing is often catalogue inertia, not the legend on the paper. This collection transcribes what is printed: oro on the families that carry it, pesos once the bank dropped it. The 1994 Emberá closes the arc. A generic type is not published, nor a convertibility that 1931 had already cancelled.
Examples in the collection
See also: Peso , Legal tender , Demonetized