Colombia 10, 20, and 50 Centavos 1911 to 1951

That is Simon Bolivar on the front of your coin, Dave. He is regarded in Hispanic America as a hero, visionary, revolutionary, and liberator. During his lifetime, he led Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela to independence from Spain, and helped lay the foundations for democratic ideology in much of Hispanic America.

This page applies only to coins that look like our picture. Other coins, with other patterns, exist.

The inscription G xxx LEY 0.900 tells the silver content, i.e., 'this many grams, 0.900 fine by law (ley)'. The list below gives approximate catalog values for these coins. The 10 and 20 centavo pieces do not have enough silver in them to be noteworthy, but the 50 centavos coin has about one-third of a troy ounce of silver, and that starts to show basic silver value in these days of weak American dollars. Use a site such as kitco.com to find the current price of silver.

10 DIEZ CENTAVOS, 2.5 grams ley 0.900, 0.054 troy ounces silver
worn: $1 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $3
well preserved: $8
fully uncirculated: $20
coins before 1938, multiply these values by two
coins dated 1942, multiply these values by three

20 VEINTE CENTAVOS, 5.0 grams ley 0.900, 0.144 troy ounces silver
worn: $2 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $5
well preserved: $12
fully uncirculated: $35
coins dated 1922, multiply these values by four
coins dated 1942 with no B mint mark, multiply by three

20 VEINTE CENTAVOS, 5.0 grams ley 0.500, 0.080 troy ounces silver
worn: $2 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $7
well preserved: $20
fully uncirculated: $50
coins after 1947 with B mint mark, divide these values by two

50 CINCUENTA CENTAVOS, 12.5 grams ley 0.900, 0.362 troy ounces silver
worn: $5 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $15
well preserved: $30
fully uncirculated: $75
coins dated 1917 multiply these values by 1.5
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