A source guide
Notofilia vs. other Colombian banknote catalogs
Anyone looking up a Colombian note usually crosses four different sites: the issuing bank’s museum, a type catalog, a classifieds market, and this private collection. They do not measure the same thing.
What Notofilia is
Notofilia is a private collection and bilingual catalogue of historical banknotes and coins, founded by Yezid Acosta. Spanish is the default locale; English lives at /en/. Nothing shown is for sale.
Each record describes one physical example: face and back photos, a serial when it can be read, Pick, TBB, González White (BG#), or Hernández (Cód.) references when those numbers exist, and the sources used. BanRep annual denomination totals are not treated as the printage of one type, and price columns are not republished.
The Banco de la República Numismatic Collection
The Banco de la República keeps an institutional Numismatic Collection, shown at the Casa de Moneda Museum in Bogotá and searchable in the Banrepcultural catalog. It is the issuer’s museum: types, historical context, and reserve pieces, not a private collector’s inventory.
Its public production tables (notes 1960–2022; coins from 1987) measure millions of pieces by denomination and year. They do not replace a type’s Pick number or an example’s serial. Notofilia cites them as issuer statistics, not as the printage of one record.
The Pick catalog (Standard Catalog of World Paper Money)
The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money — “Pick” — is a type catalog: it assigns a number to a design, date, or variety, not to a serial. For Colombia it sits beside The Banknote Book (TBB), González White for BanRep issues of 1923–2019, and Hernández for paper before 1923.
Two notes with the same Pick can be different objects. Notofilia uses Pick as a type label and then identifies the example by serial or, if it is slabbed, by certificate. A Pick-and-date match without a serial is not a duplicate in this collection.
MercadoLibre listings
MercadoLibre is a classifieds market. A lot posted there is a sale offer, with the seller’s photo and price, not a catalog record. Listings appear and vanish; the grade is usually the seller’s opinion, not a PMG or PCGS slab.
Notofilia does not list pieces for sale or copy prices from that market. If a listing serial matches a published record here, that coincidence has to be checked: the serial is the object’s identity, not the Pick number.
What each source measures
| Source | What it is | Identity | For sale? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notofilia | Private bilingual collection | Serial (or certificate) of one example | No |
| BanRep / Casa de Moneda | Issuer museum and reserve | Museum type; not a collector serial | No |
| Pick catalog | World type catalog | Type number (Pick / TBB) | No (it is a book) |
| MercadoLibre | Private and shop listings | The seller’s lot, while it stays posted | Yes |