Colombian peso: photo and description, history, exchange rate

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The Colombian Peso is the official currency of the Republic of Colombia. The official abbreviation for this currency is COP, but it is often also referred to as COL$. The circulation of the Colombian peso is controlled by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia. In 2017, the lowest value of 50 pesos ($50) was minted and the highest value of 100,000 pesos ($100,000) tickets issued.

History of Appearance

The peso became the Colombian coin in 1810. In 1837, the peso began to replace the real. Then for one peso they gave 8 reais. In 1847, Colombia revised the issue of the value of the peso, which began to be valued at 10 reais. In 1853, the real was renamed desimo, which means "tenth" in Spanish.

Currently, the peso has a value of 100 centavs (from Spanish centavo - one hundredth). The centavo currency appeared in Colombia as early as 1819, but did not begin to be used on paper money until the early 1860s. The first coins worth 1 centavo began to be issued in the country only in 1872.

Historical developmentColombian currency and its position in the international market

In 1871, Colombia adopted the gold standard for its currency, tying the peso to the French franc. The exchange rate of the Colombian peso to the franc at that time was 1:5. However, in 1880, during the presidency of Rafael Nunez, the National Bank of the Republic of Colombia was created, which began to issue a running coin. In 1888, she experienced severe inflation.

To solve this problem, in 1903, the government of José Manuel Marroquín established the Depreciation Board, which was supposed to convert the current coin into a gold peso. Subsequently, the government of Rafael Reyes created the Central Bank, which continued the work of the Depreciation Board and linked the peso to the British pound sterling at a rate of 5:1, respectively. From this period, the Central Bank begins to print tickets, called the "golden peso".

US influence on the development of the Colombian currency

After the First World War, Colombia has serious problems with its own currency. The government of President Pedro Nel Ospina in 1922 asked for help from the United States, which began to conduct an economic mission in Colombia, called the "Kemmerer mission". The main organizer and leader was the American economist Edwin W alter Kemmerer, on whose recommendation the Bank of the Republic of Columbia was established in 1923, which performs its functions to this day.

In 1931, Britain abandoned the gold standard and Colombia pegged the peso to the currencyUSA. At that time, the exchange rate of the Colombian peso against the dollar was 1.05:1. This course lasted until 1949, when another inflation of the Colombian currency began.

The notes issued by the Bank of the Republic of Colombia continued to be referred to as golden pesos until 1993, when ex-senator Pavlo Victoria, in his speech to the Council of State, proposed removing the word "gold" from the name of banknotes.

Colombian coins

Coins of 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 pesos currently circulate in Colombia. The 1000 peso coins, which were popular from 1996 to 2002, gradually began to lose their importance due to their frequent counterfeiting. As a result, these coins were no longer minted, but were replaced by banknotes of the same value. Although the 1000 peso coin is still in circulation, it is now very hard to find it in Colombia.

In 1998, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Organization of American Nations, the Bank of the Republic of Colombia issued coins of 5,000 pesos. However, due to their small quantity and high cost, they hardly circulate in the country.

20 Colombian pesos were introduced in 2006, but quickly fell out of circulation as all minimum prices were rounded up to 50 pesos.

In 2007, the 50-peso coins were minted in nickel-plated steel, instead of nickel silver, which was economically expensive to produce. However, in 2008 they returned to minting nickel silver coins.

The Bank of the Republic of Colombia on February 9, 2009 announced the termination ofminting coins worth 5, 10 and 20 Colombian pesos, since they are practically not used in monetary transactions.

Design change

From July 13, 2012, the issue of Colombian coins begins with a new design that reflects the national fauna and flora. At the same time, the nominal value of the coins remained unchanged, that is, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pesos. A 1000 Colombian peso coin was also issued again. Not only the design of the coins has changed, but also the alloy from which they were minted. According to Jose Dario Urive, governor of the Bank of the Republic, these measures are connected with the desire to reduce costs in the production of metallic money.

The front side of the new coins reminds the Colombian of the biological richness of the species of the country in which he lives:

• The 50 peso coin features a spectacled bear.
• 100 Colombian pesos - Espeletia plant.
• 200 pesos - Ara Macau parrot.
• 500 pesos - glass frog.
• 1000 pesos - loggerhead turtle.

The 1000 coin has the words "save water" on the front of the coin and "water" on the back. In addition, the image of waves is printed on all coins.

Cash tickets

As for the paper currency of Colombia, it should be said that on October 16, 1994, an organized group of criminals stole more than 24 billion Colombian pesos from the Bank of the Republic. Among the stolen money wererare tickets in denominations of 2000, 5000 and 10,000 pesos. The bank knew the issue series of these banknotes, so it issued a special list in which they were declared as having no value. As a result, after the theft, the Colombians looked through each banknote during the commission of any monetary transaction so as not to accidentally receive the stolen banknote.

To solve the problem of stolen money, the Bank of the Republic began issuing banknotes in denominations of 2,000, 5,000 and 10,000 pesos with a new design. To speed up the process of replacing old money with new ones, he began to carry out a campaign to withdraw all old banknotes from circulation.

In 1997, blue tickets with the image of Simón Bolívar, worth 1,000 pesos, went out of circulation. They were replaced with a coin of similar value. However, they were similar in their design to coins of 100 Colombian pesos, so they were massively counterfeited. As a result, the 1000-peso note was returned to circulation, but now features Colombian lawyer, writer and politician Jorge Elécer Gaitán.

Until 2006, all Colombian banknotes had the same dimensions (14x7 cm). On November 17, 2006, the issue of 1000 and 2000 peso notes begins, which have the same design, but a smaller size (13x6.5 cm).

New paper money

In the first half of 2016, Colombia began issuing new banknotes. A feature of their release was a ticket with a face value of 100,000 pesos, which is decorated with a portrait of Carlos Yeras Restrepo. This is the former President of Colombia. New banknotes havethe same face values as the old ones, except for 1000 pesos. This bill was replaced by the corresponding coin.

The reason for issuing new tickets is to increase the efficiency and safety of monetary transactions, as well as to promote the biological diversity of Colombia's nature, its culture and national symbols. So, the faces of the following distinguished Colombian figures appeared on the money tickets:

• 50 thousand pesos - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Colombia's first Nobel Prize in Literature).
• 20 thousand pesos - Alfonso Lopez Michelsen (51 President of Colombia).
• 20 thousand pesos - the cultural symbol of the nation hat "sombrero vueltao".

Colombian peso against ruble, dollar and euro

The Colombian currency, like any other, is constantly changing its course against the main world monetary units, which depends on the state of the global, regional and national economy.

The exchange rate of the Colombian peso against the dollar, ruble and euro is presented in the following table.

currency	1 dollar	1 euro	1 ruble
COP	2 857, 3499	3 349, 1930	46, 5064

The table shows that 1 peso is valued at approximately 0.0004 dollars and 0.0003 euros. The exchange rate of the Colombian peso against the ruble for today is as follows: 1 peso=0.0215 rubles.

According to the dynamics reflected in the money charts over the past year, the Colombian currency is quite stable in terms ofagainst the dollar and the euro. Its annual changes amounted to no more than 2-3%.

Change in the value of the Colombian currency

Over the past decade, proposals have appeared in the government of Colombia for projects to change the value of banknotes, that is, the need to "remove extra zeros." So far, all of these projects have been rejected.

The reason for this monetary reform is that the exchange rate of the Colombian peso against the ruble is quite high, not to mention the dollar and the euro. Therefore, in 2016, with the release of new banknotes in Colombia, it was decided to print “100 thousand pesos” instead of the inscription “100,000 pesos” (in Spanish it is “100 mil pesos”) in order to subsequently remove the word “thousand” without changing the design. the bill itself.