Colombian real
The currency of Colombia until 1837 was the real. No subdivisions of the real figured until after the real had ceased to be the primary unit of currency. However, eight reales equal one peso and sixteen reales equal one escudo.
The spanish colonial real was used in Colombia until 1820, some of those were minted in Popayán and Bogotá. Issues were made particularly for Colombia, under the various names that the state used after 1820. The main currency in 1837 became the peso and it was equal to eight reales. The real was kept in circulation until 1847, when a new real was introduced worth one tenth of a peso and subdivided into 10 decimos de real. The new real was renamed the decimo in 1853, although coins denominated in reales were again issued 1859-1862 and in 1880.
Colombian peso
The currency of Colombia is the peso – COP. The official peso symbol is $. As of August 2016, the exchange rate of the Colombian peso is 2857 Colombian pesos to one USD.
Colombia is using the peso as a currency since 1810. It substituted the real at a rate of one peso equal to eight reales. In 1847, Colombia decimalized and the peso was subdivided into ten reales, each of ten décimos de reales. The real was renamed the decimo in 1853, even though the last reales were struck in 1880. The running currency system of 100 centavos to the peso was initially used in 1819 on early banknotes but did not showed up again until the early 1860s on banknotes and wasn’t used on the coinage until 1872.
Colombia went on the gold standard in 1871, pegging the peso to the French franc at a rate of one peso equal five francs. This lasted only until 1886, from 1888, printing press inflation caused Colombia’s paper money to devalue and the exchange rate between coins and paper money was fixed at 100 peso moneda corriente equal one coinage peso. Between 1907 and 1914, coins were issued denominated in peso, equal to paper pesos. The Junta de Conversión began emitting paper money in 1910 and a new paper currency was introduced in 1915 – the peso oro. It was equal to the coinage peso and replaced the old peso notes at a rate of 100 old paper pesos equal to one peso oro. When the United Kingdom left the gold standard in 1931, Colombia shifted its peg to the USD, at a rate of 1.05 pesos equal to one dollar, a slight devaluation from its former peg.
Notwithstanding it never appeared on coins, Colombia’s paper money continued to be issued denominated in peso oro until 1993, when the word oro was dropped. The Colombian senate has debated whether to redenominate the currency by introducing a new peso worth 1000 old pesos, or to remove three zeroes from the value but such a plan has yet to be adopted.
