{"title":"Colombian Coins","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eColombian coins carry two traditions on the same currency. One is colonial and heraldic — the Andean condor, the shield with its pomegranate and liberty cap, the motto LIBERTAD Y ORDEN, and the Isthmus of Panama that Colombia still displays on its coat of arms decades after Panama became an independent nation. The other is indigenous and ancient — the Quimbaya spindlewheels, the pre-Columbian geometric patterns, and the artistic vocabulary of civilizations that flourished in the Cauca River valley a thousand years before the Spanish arrived.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThe coins in this collection span the 1990s and 2000s, a period when Colombia was simultaneously rebuilding its institutions under a new constitution (adopted in 1991), fighting a multi-front civil conflict, and producing coins in three distinct alloys — nickel brass, aluminium bronze, and bimetallic — so that shopkeepers could sort denominations by colour and weight without reading the numbers. The peso dropped the word \"oro\" from its name in 1993, officially acknowledging that the gold standard was a historical memory. The inflation that drove that decision also drove the denominations upward: what was once a 10-peso banknote became a coin, then became too small to mint, then disappeared entirely. The coins that remain record that compression — each denomination a snapshot of what the peso was worth the year the mint struck it.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"1995-colombia-200-pesos-quimbaya","title":"1995 Republic of Colombia 200 Pesos — Modern Era — Quimbaya Spindlewheel — Fine to Fine+","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"group flex border-l-[3px] border-l-transparent transition-colors duration-75\" data-diff-type=\"normal\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex-1 flex items-center pl-0 pr-2 group-data-[scrollable]\/overlay:pr-6 min-w-0 font-mono\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🌍 Counted out at a bodega counter in Bogotá alongside a handful of smaller coins, this 200-peso piece carried a design that had been old for a millennium before the country that minted it existed.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis 1995 Colombian 200 pesos was struck at the Fábrica de Moneda in Ibagué — Colombia's national mint, located in the Tolima department in the shadow of the Andes. The obverse reads REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA around the denomination, set against a background of fine vertical lines that give the surface a textured, almost textile quality. The reverse is the coin's quiet masterpiece: a Quimbaya spindlewheel rendered in stylized bird heads arranged in a symmetrical cross pattern, surrounded by a border of raised dots. The Quimbaya were a pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Cauca River valley between roughly 300 and 1600 CE, and their goldwork — abstract, geometric, intensely symmetrical — is among the most sophisticated metalwork produced anywhere in the Americas before European contact. The designer was Dicken Castro, one of Colombia's most influential architects and graphic designers, who adapted the ancient motif for a coin that would circulate through a modern republic. What a goldsmith hammered into shape a thousand years ago now sits on a nickel-brass coin that bought a bus fare in Medellín.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Everyday Life at the Time\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo hundred pesos in 1995 covered a local bus ride, a piece of pan de bono from the bakery, or a small cup of tinto — the sweet, dark coffee sold from thermoses at street corners and office lobbies across the country. Colombia in the mid-1990s was a nation in paradox: the economy was growing, the cities were modernizing, and the country's coffee, flowers, and emeralds moved through global markets — but the narco-trafficking violence that had peaked with Pablo Escobar's death in 1993 was still reshaping the political landscape, and the civil conflict between the government, FARC, and paramilitary groups continued in the countryside while urban life carried on. The coins moved through this daily commerce at the pace of a country that had learned to function alongside its own disruptions — stacked in cash drawers, dropped into collection plates on Sunday, counted out by street vendors who made change without looking up.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e📜 Historical Context\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Quimbaya civilization emerged in what is now Colombia's coffee region — the departments of Caldas, Risaralda, and Quindío — and produced some of the most technically accomplished goldwork in the pre-Columbian world. Their poporos (lime containers for coca), their ornamental nose rings, and their abstract animal figures demonstrate a mastery of lost-wax casting and tumbaga alloys that European goldsmiths would not match for centuries. The spindlewheel design on this coin is a textile tool — a weight used to keep a spindle turning while thread was spun — and the stylized bird heads that radiate from its center represent a design vocabulary that was already ancient by the time the Spanish reached the Cauca Valley in the sixteenth century. Colombia chose to put this design on its highest-denomination circulating coin in 1994, a decision that placed pre-Columbian art in more hands per day than every museum in the country combined. The Quimbaya left no written language, no monumental architecture, no empire. They left goldwork so beautiful that the Spanish melted most of it down — and a design so enduring that a modern republic put it on its money.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e🧾 Coin Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYear: 1995\u003cbr\u003eCountry: Colombia\u003cbr\u003eDenomination: 200 Pesos\u003cbr\u003eGovernment: Republic of Colombia (1886–present)\u003cbr\u003eComposition: Nickel Brass (65% Copper, 20% Zinc, 15% Nickel)\u003cbr\u003eWeight: 7.08 g\u003cbr\u003eDiameter: 24.4 mm\u003cbr\u003eThickness: 1.7 mm\u003cbr\u003eMintage: 150,000,000\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Fine to Fine+\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe coin lands in the hand with the particular warmth of nickel brass — seven grams of a golden-toned alloy that feels heavier and more substantial than its diameter suggests. The surfaces have aged to a muted champagne with darker amber settling into the recessed lines of the Quimbaya design, where the stylized bird heads cast shadows that shift as the coin rotates under light. The obverse carries its vertical line pattern across the central field, giving the denomination a woven quality that echoes the textile origin of the reverse design. At twenty-four millimeters it sits between an American quarter and a half dollar in diameter, thick enough at 1.7 millimeters to feel solid between thumb and forefinger. The edge carries an inscription — MOTIVO QUIMBAYA — a detail invisible until you roll the coin on its side and the incised letters catch the light, spelling out the name of a civilization that vanished five hundred years ago.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐ Why This Coin Is a Great Collectible\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCarries a genuine pre-Columbian Quimbaya design — indigenous art that predates European contact by over a millennium\u003cbr\u003eOne of the few circulating coins in the world that features pre-Columbian artwork as its primary design element\u003cbr\u003eStruck at the Fábrica de Moneda in Ibagué — Colombia's national mint in the Andean highlands\u003cbr\u003eThe edge inscription \"MOTIVO QUIMBAYA\" names the civilization — a detail most people who spent this coin never noticed\u003cbr\u003eDesigned by Dicken Castro, one of Colombia's most celebrated architects and graphic designers\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Collector Tip\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColombia's peso coinage from the 1990s through the 2010s forms a quiet gallery of pre-Columbian art across denominations — Quimbaya designs on the 200 pesos, Zenú and Muisca motifs on other values. A collector who picks up one begins noticing the others, and the thread leads back to the Museo del Oro in Bogotá, which holds the largest collection of pre-Columbian gold artifacts in the world. The coin in your hand is a pocket-sized sample of what fills that museum — art that survived the Spanish conquest not because it was preserved, but because it was too beautiful to forget.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou will receive the exact coin shown in these photographs. All coins are authentic and unaltered — we don't enhance patina or touch up surfaces. Grades are conservative; circulated pieces show honest wear from actual use, not damage or mishandling. Carefully packaged and ships promptly with tracking.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe goldsmith who made the original design never saw a coin. The country that made this coin never saw the goldsmith. A thousand years separate them, and the pattern survived both.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WadesCoinShop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47976243331286,"sku":"S-SAM-COL-200P-1995","price":1.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/4939\/5158\/files\/20260324_112352.jpg?v=1774368334"},{"product_id":"1991-colombia-10-pesos-coat-of-arms","title":"1991 Republic of Colombia 10 Pesos — Cold War Era — Coat of Arms — Fine","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"group flex border-l-[3px] border-l-transparent transition-colors duration-75\" data-diff-type=\"normal\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex-1 flex items-center pl-0 pr-2 group-data-[scrollable]\/overlay:pr-6 min-w-0 font-mono\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e☢️ Dropped into a bus fare box in Cali, this ten-peso coin carried the national coat of arms of a country that was rewriting its constitution the same year the mint struck it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis 1991 Colombian 10 pesos was struck at the Fábrica de Moneda in Ibagué during one of the most consequential years in the country's modern history. The obverse carries the full coat of arms of the Republic of Colombia — the Andean condor with outstretched wings above a shield divided into three sections: a pomegranate at the top (for the old name, Nueva Granada), a Phrygian liberty cap in the center, and the Isthmus of Panama at the bottom (still carried on the arms decades after Panama's independence in 1903). Flanking the shield are two national flags draped over cornucopias, and below it a ribbon bearing the motto LIBERTAD Y ORDEN — Liberty and Order. The reverse is simpler: the denomination 10 PESOS within a laurel wreath, tied with a bow at the bottom. This was the small-change workhorse of Colombian commerce — a coin barely larger than an American dime, made of nickel brass with a reeded edge, designed to be functional rather than beautiful. By 2009, the Banco de la República would stop minting it entirely, and cash transactions across the country began rounding to the nearest fifty or hundred pesos, erasing this denomination from daily life.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Everyday Life at the Time\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTen pesos in 1991 was the smallest transaction most Colombians would bother with — it covered part of a bus fare, tipped the balance when counting out change at a tienda, or accumulated in the ceramic dish by the front door where small coins went to wait. Colombia in 1991 was a country in transformation. Pablo Escobar surrendered to authorities in June and entered his self-built prison, La Catedral. A constituent assembly convened to write an entirely new constitution — replacing the 1886 document that had governed the republic for over a century — and the resulting charter, adopted on July 4, 1991, created new protections for indigenous rights, established the tutela (a mechanism for citizens to demand enforcement of constitutional rights), and reorganized the judiciary. The coins that moved through this year's commerce were the same coins that had circulated the year before and the year after, unchanged by the constitutional revolution happening above them, buying the same bread at the same bakery counter while the legal foundation of the country was rebuilt from scratch.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e📜\u003cstrong\u003e Historical Context\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColombia's 1991 Constitution was not an amendment — it was a replacement. The constituent assembly that drafted it included guerrilla leaders who had recently demobilized, indigenous representatives who had never before participated in national governance, and civic reformers who believed the 105-year-old 1886 constitution was structurally incapable of addressing the violence, inequality, and institutional failure that had defined the previous decades. The new charter created the Constitutional Court, guaranteed healthcare and education as fundamental rights, recognized Colombia as a multicultural nation for the first time, and gave indigenous communities authority over their own territories. The coat of arms on this coin — the same arms that had appeared on Colombian money since the nineteenth century — continued unchanged through the constitutional transition, a reminder that the symbols of the state can outlast the systems that operate beneath them. The condor spread its wings over a new legal framework in 1991 the same way it had spread them over the old one, and the coin carried both versions with the same weight.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e🧾 Coin Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYear: 1991\u003cbr\u003eCountry: Colombia\u003cbr\u003eDenomination: 10 Pesos\u003cbr\u003eGovernment: Republic of Colombia (1886–present)\u003cbr\u003eComposition: Nickel Brass\u003cbr\u003eWeight: 3.3 g\u003cbr\u003eDiameter: 18.75 mm\u003cbr\u003eThickness: 1.5 mm\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Fine\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe coin is small — eighteen millimeters across, barely wider than an American dime, and light enough at 3.3 grams to disappear in a pocket. The nickel brass alloy has aged to a muted golden-brown, darker and more weathered than the brighter champagne tone of its larger 200-peso sibling. The coat of arms on the obverse shows honest wear — the condor's wing feathers have softened, the flags flanking the shield have lost their fine detail, and the letters of REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA carry the particular flatness that comes from years of being rubbed against other coins in a pocket or a cash drawer. The laurel wreath on the reverse holds its shape better, the individual leaves still distinguishable under good light. The reeded edge grips the fingertip when rolled — a functional detail on a coin designed to be identified by touch in a handful of mixed denominations.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e⭐ Why This Coin Is a Great Collectible\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eStruck in 1991 — the year Colombia adopted its landmark new constitution, replacing a charter that had governed since 1886\u003cbr\u003eCarries the full national coat of arms including the Isthmus of Panama, still displayed decades after Panama became an independent nation\u003cbr\u003eThe 10-peso denomination was discontinued by the Banco de la República in 2009 — this coin will never be minted again\u003cbr\u003eOne of the smallest circulating denominations Colombia ever produced — a workhorse coin that most people never examined closely\u003cbr\u003eThe condor, liberty cap, and LIBERTAD Y ORDEN motto on this coin predate the country's current constitution by over a century\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Collector Tip\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColombian peso coins from the late 1980s through the 2000s form an inflation timeline in your hand — the 10 pesos that once bought a bus transfer became too small to mint, while the 200 and 500 peso coins that replaced it in daily commerce carried increasingly elaborate pre-Columbian and ecological designs. A collector who holds both the 10 pesos (colonial heraldic tradition — coat of arms, condor, laurel wreath) and the 200 pesos (indigenous artistic tradition — Quimbaya spindlewheel) holds two competing visions of national identity on two denominations of the same currency. The question of which tradition gets the larger coin is never accidental.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou will receive the exact coin shown in these photographs. All coins are authentic and unaltered — we don't enhance patina or touch up surfaces. Grades are conservative; circulated pieces show honest wear from actual use, not damage or mishandling. Carefully packaged and ships promptly with tracking.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe constitution was rewritten. The coat of arms was not. The condor spread its wings over a new country and looked the same as it always had.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WadesCoinShop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47976614232278,"sku":"S-SAM-COL-10P-1991","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/4939\/5158\/files\/20260324_112556.jpg?v=1774373798"},{"product_id":"1993-colombia-100-pesos-coat-of-arms","title":"1993 Republic of Colombia 100 Pesos — Modern Era — Coat of Arms — Fine to Fine+","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"group flex border-l-[3px] border-l-transparent transition-colors duration-75\" data-diff-type=\"normal\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex-1 flex items-center pl-0 pr-2 group-data-[scrollable]\/overlay:pr-6 min-w-0 font-mono\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e🌍 Scooped from a cash drawer at a panadería in Medellín, this hundred-peso coin entered circulation the same year the country dropped the word \"gold\" from its money and the most wanted man in the hemisphere was killed on a rooftop six blocks from a bakery just like that one.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis 1993 Colombian 100 pesos was struck at the Fábrica de Moneda in Ibagué in only the second year this denomination existed as a coin — the 100-peso banknote had been retired in 1991, and the aluminium bronze coin that replaced it was part of a larger monetary overhaul driven by inflation that had been compressing the value of the peso for two decades. The obverse carries the coat of arms of the Republic: the Andean condor with outstretched wings above a shield bearing the pomegranate of Nueva Granada, the Phrygian cap of liberty, and the Isthmus of Panama, flanked by national flags and cornucopias, with LIBERTAD Y ORDEN on the ribbon beneath. The reverse frames the denomination — 100 PESOS — within a laurel wreath tied with a bow at the bottom, and the edge carries an inscription repeating CIEN PESOS twice around the circumference. In 1993, the Banco de la República officially dropped the word \"oro\" from all Colombian currency — the peso had been designated \"peso oro\" since 1910 to distinguish it from the devalued paper peso of the nineteenth century, and the removal acknowledged what everyone already knew: the gold standard was a historical memory, and the peso was worth what the market said it was worth. The gold was gone from the name the same year it was gone from the economy's illusions.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Everyday Life at the Time\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA hundred pesos in 1993 bought a small bread roll at the bakery, a stick of gum from the vendor outside the bus terminal, or part of a local phone call. Colombia that year existed in two realities simultaneously. In one, the economy was growing, inflation was being tamed, and the new constitution was reshaping institutions. In the other, Pablo Escobar — who had escaped his self-built prison La Catedral in July 1992 — was being hunted across Medellín by a coalition of police, military, and intelligence services that would find him on December 2, 1993, on a rooftop in the Los Olivos neighborhood. The coins that moved through daily commerce that year carried the same coat of arms and the same motto — Liberty and Order — while the country tested whether either word still applied. The wear on this coin is the record of an economy that kept functioning through the disruption, because economies always do. People bought bread. People made change. The hundred-peso coin circulated regardless of what was happening above it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e📜 Historical Context\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe 100-peso coin entered circulation in 1992 as part of Colombia's response to decades of inflation — replacing paper banknotes with coins for denominations that had become too small to justify printing. The process was gradual: 50 pesos became a coin in 1986, 100 pesos in 1992, 200 pesos in 1994, 500 pesos in 1993. Each step moved the boundary between \"coin money\" and \"paper money\" upward as the peso's purchasing power declined. By 1993, the year the word \"oro\" was officially dropped, the peso had lost over 99% of the value it held when the gold standard was abandoned in the 1930s. The coin in your hand represents the moment when the pretense was officially retired — when the currency stopped calling itself something it had not been for sixty years and started being honest about what it was. The condor on the obverse and the LIBERTAD Y ORDEN motto on the ribbon survived the transition unchanged, because the symbols of the state are always the last thing to acknowledge what the economy has already demonstrated.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e🧾 Coin Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYear: 1993\u003cbr\u003eCountry: Colombia\u003cbr\u003eDenomination: 100 Pesos\u003cbr\u003eGovernment: Republic of Colombia (1886–present)\u003cbr\u003eComposition: Aluminium Bronze\u003cbr\u003eWeight: 5.31 g\u003cbr\u003eDiameter: 23 mm\u003cbr\u003eThickness: 1.55 mm\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Fine to Fine+\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe coin has the warm golden tone of aluminium bronze — a color distinctly different from the silvery nickel brass of the 10 and 200-peso coins, giving it an immediate visual identity in a mixed handful of Colombian change. At five grams and twenty-three millimeters it sits at almost exactly the same diameter as a US quarter but feels lighter, and the surfaces have developed the particular mottled patina that aluminium bronze produces over time — darker amber in the protected recesses around the condor's feathers and the shield's divisions, brighter gold on the exposed high points of the lettering and the laurel wreath. The edge inscription CIEN PESOS is a detail most people who spent this coin never noticed — visible only when the coin is rotated on its side, the incised letters catching light in a narrow band around the circumference. The coat of arms retains readable detail despite the wear, with the condor's wings, the shield's three fields, and the motto LIBERTAD Y ORDEN all distinguishable under normal light.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e⭐\u003cstrong\u003e Why This Coin Is a Great Collectible\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom 1993 — the year Colombia dropped the word \"oro\" (gold) from its currency, officially ending a naming convention that dated to 1910\u003cbr\u003eOnly the second year the 100-peso denomination existed as a coin — it had been a banknote until 1991\u003cbr\u003eCarries the full national coat of arms with the Andean condor, Phrygian cap, and Isthmus of Panama\u003cbr\u003eThe warm golden colour of aluminium bronze makes this coin visually distinct from the silver-toned nickel denominations\u003cbr\u003eEdge inscription CIEN PESOS is a hidden detail — most people who spent this coin for a decade never noticed it\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e💡 Collector Tip\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColombian coins from the 1990s come in three distinct alloys: nickel brass (10 and 200 pesos — silvery), aluminium bronze (100 pesos — golden), and bimetallic (500 pesos — gold center, silver ring). A collector who holds all three types holds a lesson in how mints use colour to differentiate denominations by touch and sight in a currency system where inflation was pushing the numbers higher every few years. The colour is not decorative — it is functional, designed so a shopkeeper could sort a handful of coins without reading the numbers, and it works in your hand the same way it worked in theirs.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou will receive the exact coin shown in these photographs. All coins are authentic and unaltered — we don't enhance patina or touch up surfaces. Grades are conservative; circulated pieces show honest wear from actual use, not damage or mishandling. Carefully packaged and ships promptly with tracking.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe peso stopped calling itself gold in 1993. The coin kept its golden colour anyway — not because the metal was precious, but because the mint needed it to look different from the coins on either side of it in a cash drawer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WadesCoinShop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47976755396822,"sku":"S-SAM-COL-100P-1993","price":1.39,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/4939\/5158\/files\/20260324_113112.jpg?v=1774379499"},{"product_id":"1990-colombia-10-pesos-condor","title":"1990 Republic of Colombia 10 Pesos — Cold War \/ Republic — Andean Condor Coat of Arms — F+ to VF","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"group flex border-l-[3px] border-l-transparent transition-colors duration-75\" data-diff-type=\"normal\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"flex-1 flex items-center pl-0 pr-2 group-data-[scrollable]\/overlay:pr-6 min-w-0 font-mono\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e☢️ Stacked in a shopkeeper's cash tray at a tienda in Cali, this ten-peso coin circulated through a year when Colombia was rewriting its constitution and burying its candidates at the same time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis 1990 Republic of Colombia 10 Pesos carries the national coat of arms — the Andean condor with wings spread above a shield bearing a Phrygian cap, crossed cornucopias, and a pomegranate — surrounded by REPUBLICA DE COLOMBIA and the date. The reverse is plain: 10 PESOS inside a laurel wreath. Ninety-one million of these were struck at the Ibagué Mint, the country's main production facility since the Bogotá mint transferred operations in the 1980s. The nickel brass gives the coin a warm golden tone that set it apart from the silver-colored denominations around it.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1990 was the year Colombia decided it needed a new social contract. Three presidential candidates had been assassinated in the months before the election — Luis Carlos Galán, Bernardo Jaramillo, and Carlos Pizarro — and the country was caught between cartel violence and guerrilla warfare. César Gaviria won the presidency in May, and by December a constituent assembly had been convened to write the constitution that still governs Colombia today.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e💡\u003cstrong\u003e Everyday Life at the Time\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTen pesos in 1990 was already a small denomination — enough for a local bus fare in a smaller city or a piece of pan de bono at a panadería, but not much else. The peso had been inflating steadily for decades, and the coins that once carried real purchasing power were becoming tokens of persistence. Shopkeepers stacked them because they accumulated faster than they were spent, and the brass surface picked up the fingerprints and palm oil of a country where commerce happened in person, in cash, across counters made of wood and glass. The wear on this piece tracks that daily friction.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e📜 \u003cstrong\u003eHistorical Context\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColombia in 1990 was simultaneously one of the most violent and one of the most democratically resilient countries in the hemisphere. The republic had never experienced a military coup in the twentieth century — an almost unique distinction in Latin America — even as the narcotics trade was destroying the institutions the republic depended on. The condor on this coin had been on Colombian money since the nineteenth century, wings spread over a shield that promised liberty and order.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe new constitution of 1991 would reshape the country's legal framework entirely — introducing a constitutional court, recognizing indigenous rights, and reforming the justice system. This coin circulated through the last year of the old constitutional order, bearing the same coat of arms that the new constitution would keep. The condor survived the transition. The arms survived. The denomination kept shrinking until it was no longer worth the metal it was struck on.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e🧾 \u003cstrong\u003eCoin Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCountry: Colombia\u003cbr\u003eDenomination: 10 Pesos\u003cbr\u003eYear: 1990\u003cbr\u003eGovernment: Republic of Colombia\u003cbr\u003eComposition: Nickel Brass (65% Copper, 20% Zinc, 15% Nickel)\u003cbr\u003eWeight: 3.3 g\u003cbr\u003eDiameter: 18.75 mm\u003cbr\u003eThickness: 1.5 mm\u003cbr\u003eMintage: 91,300,000\u003cbr\u003eCondition: F+ to Very Fine — condor and shield details clearly defined; laurel wreath sharp on reverse; even wear from steady circulation\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSmall and warm. At 18.75 mm this coin sits just slightly larger than a US dime, but the nickel brass gives it a golden color that no American coin shares. The 3.3 grams barely register in the palm — light enough to stack, light enough to lose, light enough that a pocket full of them sounds like a handful of buttons. The condor on the obverse has the mottled surface patina of brass that spent decades in tropical humidity, a mix of amber and grey that changes tone depending on the light. The laurel wreath on the reverse retains enough detail to count individual leaves where the stems cross at the base.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e⭐\u003cstrong\u003e Why This Coin Is a Great Collectible\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e• Struck in the year Colombia began the process that produced its current constitution — the last year of the old legal order\u003cbr\u003e• The Andean condor coat of arms has appeared on Colombian money since the country's independence in the nineteenth century\u003cbr\u003e• Nickel brass composition gives it a distinctive golden color and warm patina unlike any copper-nickel denomination\u003cbr\u003e• Minted at Ibagué, Colombia's primary coin production facility since the transfer from Bogotá\u003cbr\u003e• Mintage of 91 million — the scale of ordinary commerce in a country of thirty-three million people\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e💡 \u003cstrong\u003eCollector Tip\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce you notice the condor on Colombian coins, you'll find yourself tracking its wingspan across denominations — the same bird appears on the ten, the twenty, the fifty, and the hundred, growing more detailed as the coin grows larger. The kind of collector who starts with one Colombian denomination begins to see how a single heraldic design scales across sizes and metals. The condor stayed the same through every constitutional crisis. The country underneath it kept changing shape.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou will receive the exact coin shown in these photographs. All coins are authentic and unaltered — we do not enhance patina or touch up surfaces. Grades are conservative; circulated pieces show honest wear from actual use, not damage or mishandling. Carefully packaged. Ships promptly with tracking.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThey buried three candidates and held the election anyway. The condor on the coin spread its wings over all of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"WadesCoinShop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47977497428182,"sku":"S-SAM-COL-10P-1990","price":1.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/4939\/5158\/files\/20260324_184827.jpg?v=1774402240"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0811\/4939\/5158\/collections\/20260324_113112.jpg?v=1774383093","url":"https:\/\/wadescoinshop.myshopify.com\/collections\/colombian-coins.oembed","provider":"WadesCoinShop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}