50,000-peso Banknote - Jorge Isaacs Commemorative Edition

Tribute to writer Jorge Isaacs

With this issuance of the 50,000-peso banknote, Banco de la República (the Central Bank of Colombia) pays tribute to Jorge Isaacs, author of the novel María, which has had an impact on many generations of men and women throughout the Spanish-speaking world since its publication. By the end of the century, more than 50 editions of the novel had been published, and in 1967, the centennial year of its publication, it was the most widely read novel in Latin America according to Monero Furán. Even more, it went beyond that, if we consider the testimonies of those who fostered the Japanese migration to Valle del Cauca in 1929 and directed that colony to the countryside they had read about at a very young age in the Japanese translation of Isaacs' novel.

Immortalized by the novel, Isaacs was much more than a literary author. His eventful life synthesizes the entire spirit of the 19th century with its passions and curiosities: building inspector, combat soldier, politician, journalist, diplomat, founder of schools, ethnographic researcher, president of the State of Antioquia, and miner. In short, his life accurately reflects the values that became art through his immortal Maria.

Banco de la República would like to thank specially Óscar Muñoz, designer of the motifs included in the banknote and to all the people in Colombia and abroad who have worked together to bring this new banknote into circulation.