Production
Proof / essay
Prueba / ensayo
A proof or essay is a preliminary, non-legal-tender print used to evaluate plate, ink, colour, or register before the run. An essay is typically a design proposal; a proof, a shop test. Hernández notes that proofs do not carry zeros and are often uniface, unlike a specimen, which does carry zeros and is usually marked SPECIMEN. In ABNC practice, however, there are proofs with serial 00000 mounted on printer’s card: the 1881 Banco Hipotecario pair (S511p1 / S511p2) and the Riohacha pair (S819p1 / S819p2) are recorded as proofs, not as central-bank specimens.
The Giori Lincoln Memorial note, ca. 1970s, is a uniface press test: green, with no serials or seals and a blank back. It is not legal tender and not a circulating Fr. The E-Sylum places trials with BEP “nonsense” plates at Geneva, New York, in that decade; this record does not invent a printage. It is distinct from a remainder, leftover paper from a closed issue missing signatures, and from a BanRep specimen with overprint and punches.
This collection does not turn a proof into circulation because it has a portrait. The Hipotecario PMG 61 and the Giori are described as what they are. The 1960 5 pesos oro specimen — zeros, no printed SPECIMEN — stays in the specimen article, because Hernández and the record treat it so. The glossary separates the three states — proof, specimen, remainder — so that a zero serial does not merge them.
A proof is not a printing error or a butterfly cut either. The Giori was cut on purpose as a test; the 2010 5,000 kept a margin from a guillotine fault. Mixing those shops erases both records. Zero serials, SPECIMEN, and a blank box remain three states: ABNC proof, TDLR specimen, and Haxby remainder.
Examples in the collection
See also: Specimen , Intaglio printing , Butterfly cut , Uniface