This article is an account of the experience of the policy for the fight against leprosy developed in Colombia between 1890 and 1930, which combined the obligatory confinement of the diseased with the existence of a special currency for leper colonies. The purpose of analyzing that experience is to probe the links between that currency and social protection, as well as to discuss the theoretical elements which allow us to analyze that link in societies which have not attained an extension of the salaried relationship.