1 Bolívar

Venezuela's 1 Bolívar type was introduced as part of the country's adoption of the Latin Monetary Union standard, aligning its coinage metrically with France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy. The decision was largely driven by Antonio Guzmán Blanco, the strongman who dominated Venezuelan politics through the 1870s and 1880s and who aggressively modernized the country's financial infrastructure — often contracting European mints, including Paris, to strike the issues.

The type survived remarkably intact through nearly six decades and multiple regimes, a span that included the brutal caudillo rule of Juan Vicente Gómez, whose 27-year grip on power ended only with his death in 1935.