20 August 2016•Update: 20 August 2016
By Senabri Silvestre
SANTO DOMINGO, Dom. Rep.
Colombia launched on Friday a new bill of 50,000 pesos with the image of Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
The noted which amounts to $17.50 was issued pursuant to a law that allows the nation to honor the memory of the legedenary writer, novelist and journalist who dead in 2014 in Mexico at the age of 87.
"This character ... has so far taken the name of Colombia since the middle of last century," the head of Colombia´s Central Bank Jose Dario Uribe said during the presentation of the new note.
The note is the third this year in a new family bills from the bank to provide enhanced security and attractiveness to the currency.
Earlier this year, the south American nation unveiled a new highest denomination of 100,000 pesos featuring former President Carlos Lleras Restrepo and a 20,000-peso in June that bears the image of ex-President Alfonso Lopez Michelsen.
"After nearly two decades of appearance of banknotes ... (this replacement) is one of the ways in which the bank of the republic executes its responsibility to maintain public confidence in paper money,” Uribe said.
The change also helps the flow of daily economic transactions and prevents obstacles for the circulation of durable and difficult counterfeit bills, he said.
The most novel safety feature of the new note is the incorporation of images showing effects of color changes and movement. A hummingbird biting a flower, which appears left of center on the front of the bill, changes from green to blue to turn the bill.
Superimposed on the image of the bird is a green circle that appears to move when tilted, according to the bank.
Colombia will circulate new denominations of 10,000, 5,000 and 2,000 pesos in the fourth quarter.
