Currency of Colombia 50000 Pesos banknote 2016 Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Banco de la República (Colombia) - Central bank of the Republic of Colombia
Obverse: Portrait of
Gabriel García Márquez (6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as
Gabo or
Gabito throughout Latin America, best known of his novels are "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera".
Nobel Prize winner and father of magical realism Gabriel García Márquez releasing a cloud of butterflies into the air, just like the character Mauricio Babilonia from his most famous book "One Hundred Years of Solitude", who is always accompanied by a swarm of yellow butterflies. After the author's death in 2014, García Márquez's fans left strings of paper butterflies outside his home, and fans in other countries laid them wherever his ashes were placed on display.
Denomination in dark blue-to-light blue OVI; BRC as registration device; The image of the hummingbird feeding from a flower on the left-hand side of the banknote changes from green to blue; simultaneously, the intense green circle appears to move. Burgao (nautilus shell) as registration device; Liberty head bank seal. Solid security thread and yellow-to-green windowed security thread with demetalized BRC.
Text: “50 MIL PESOS” in the upper left corner.
Texts: “BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA” and “COLOMBIA.”
The signatures of the Governor of the Central Bank and its Deputy Executive Governor.
Fringes with oval figures on the sides of the face.
Common and scientific name of the hummingbird (Colibrí piquicorto).
Five diagonal lines on the side edges.
The number fifty in Braille, on the bottom center (slightly to the left).
Reverse: The backside of the bill features two Arawak Indians in front of their traditional homes alongside an image of La Ciudad Perdida, the heart of the Tayrona culture in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the terraces of the “Lost City” near the Caribbean coast that highlights the heights of this great civilization. Ciudad Perdida is currently a ruin that has become one of the most famous tourist attractions in Colombia.
Extract from the speech “The Solitude of Latin America,” with which Gabo received the Nobel Prize.
The logo of Banco de la República.
The texts “50 MIL PESOS” and “CINCUENTA MIL PESOS.”
Text: “CIUDAD PERDIDA, SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA.”
The right-hand side displays the date of approval of the banknote's edition, and the text “IMPRENTA DE BILLETES-BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA.”
Watermark: The face of the Nobel Prize for Literature Gabriel García Márquez and electrotype 50.
Printer: IMPRENTA DE BILLETES — BANCO DE LA REPUBLICA.
Size: Its measurements are 148 mm × 66 mm; it is printed on 100% cotton security paper.
Signature Escobar/Buitrago.
Prefix AA. 19 DE AGOSTO DE 2015. Introduction: 19.08.2016.
Color: Violet is the predominant color of the new banknote, with changes in tone.
The revamped 50000 — like the previous 50000, new 100000, and redesigned 20000 that was launched by the Banco de la República — will not feature extra zeros. In what appears to be a rebranding effort across all denominations, the note officially only says “50 MIL” or “CINCUENTA MIL” to demarcate its value. This matches the term used locally to discuss currency (with “mil,” pronounced “mill,” meaning 1000 in Spanish).
A 2016 nominee for the
International Bank Note Society Banknote of the Year award, Colombia’s 50000 peso note featuring García Márquez is a finalist among 18 revamped banknote contenders from around the globe.
García Márquez’s legacy — bringing Latin America to life through the pages of his poignant prose and giving the world a glimpse of the Colombia he loved — shines through the violet undertones of the 50000 peso note. And an excerpt of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech is also featured on the bill.
It’s no surprise then that everyone is talking about the Gabo banknote — especially on social media. Run the search #Gabo and you are likely to find countless posts not only praising the author’s banknote, but also asking how to obtain one.
Colombia’s new family of banknotes is cause for celebration — proving that the country is ready to cash in on its history to bank on the future.
