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I have added an example for the Banco Colombiano from Guatemala to the Impossible Set also indicating that this bank requires much more research.

The note is S121b, an example of the 1 peso issue, dated 17th April 1900 and my research so far posed a few questions. Earlier dates of 17th October 1879 and 5th April 1900 are also recorded, as is a Specimen issue, with most of the notes cancelled and not issued (S/N 59999 to 184998) suggesting a single print run.

So far all of the examples I have seen are all of the 17th April 1900 issue with the lowest serial number I have recorded being 17929 and the highest being 56372, with maybe ~100 notes still in existence, hopefully more. First, these numbers suggest that the earlier dates were much smaller issues, and correspond to the lower serial numbers and second; there is a group between 41037 to 41085 (from my records) which seems to correspond to all of the high-grade examples known, and about half of the total examples, which suggests a hoard of these notes was discovered at some point.

Any information on such a hoard would be much appreciated, as it seems to have been distributed quite some time ago with ungraded notes appearing singly at auctions across Europe and the US. The better notes all being submitted to PMG at different times and graded 63 to 66 with most receiving a 64 – as my example did.

I wonder what surprises the higher denominations will hold?

Interesting, the partial text on the righthand side of the face is similar to some of the bonds where tickets have been cut from the main body. Was this part of a larger bond and/or were there tickets attached to it at one point? Did the note receive the EPQ designation? A beauty of a note as well!

Very good question . The position of the cut through the vertical 'Banco Colombiano' does vary suggesting there was a counterfoil and they were cut as needed. Similar issues in my collection  (e.g. Banco Pamplona) also vary with the position of the cut and it is only remainders/specimens that I have seen which are intact (e.g. Banco Maua & Cia, Banco Internacional) which suggests that the elusive 'cancelled' late S/Ns and/or the Specimens may still have the counterfoil attached. The only notes with EPQ are the 65's and 66's.