Collecting

Specimen

Espécimen

A specimen is a sample note sent to banks and law enforcement to familiarise them with a new design. It usually carries zero serials, the word SPECIMEN or MUESTRA, “NO VALUE” ovals, and often cancellation punches. It never circulates. Hernández uses zeros to distinguish it from a proof, which does not carry them and is often uniface. In practice there are nuances: this collection’s 1960 5 pesos oro (Pick 405s, Series M, serial 00000000) has no SPECIMEN overprint and no punches, and the record still treats it as a TDLR specimen.

The 100 pesos oro of 1 January 1980 (Pick 418s) does carry the full apparatus: zeros, a diagonal SPECIMEN, ovals, SPECIMEN Nº 027, and three punches. The 2,000 pesos oro of 24 July 1983 (Pick 430as) is slabbed PCGS 64, certificate 59068295, SPECIMEN Nº 030, with hole-punch and mounting-remnant notes. No specimen printage is published: González White gives a circulating emisión; the spread does not figure the samples. An ABNC proof 00000 of the Hipotecario or Riohacha stays in the proof article.

A specimen is not a remainder or an error. The sample number (027, 030) identifies the shipment, not a circulating serial. This collection does not invent a PMG census for the 405s, which is in a sleeve. The term links proof, remainder, and encapsulation, so that a zero does not merge three different paper states.

Zeros, SPECIMEN, and punches may coincide or not: 1960 has no overprint; 1980 and 1983 do. The record transcribes what is seen, without forcing a generic Hernández reading onto a TDLR note. Sample numbers 027 and 030 are not reused on another piece. The Hipotecario 00000 stays out of this article because it is an ABNC proof, not a central-bank sample.

See also: Issuing bank / authority , Proof / essay , Butterfly cut , Remainder , Uniface , Giori test note

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