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1 Bolívar
| Issuer | Banco Central de Venezuela |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Dark blue intaglio printing over a blue-violet guilloche underprint. The issuer name BANCO CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA is inscribed across the top left, with the numeral 1 and a serial number at the lower left. The payment clause PAGADEROS AL PORTADOR EN LAS OFICINAS DEL BANCO appears centrally, while a vignette of a 1 Bolívar coin occupies the right portion, and the denomination in words UN BOLIVAR runs along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | UN BOLÍVAR 1 |
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| Comments |
By 1989, the 1 Bolívar note was an anachronism. Inflation had so thoroughly eroded Venezuela's purchasing power that the denomination was functionally worthless in daily commerce — a coin would have sufficed, and eventually did. The Banco Central kept issuing small-denomination paper well past the point of practical utility, a pattern common to Latin American central banks facing structural inflation rather than acute crisis.
Bundesdruckerei, the German federal printer, held the Venezuela contract through much of this period. Their intaglio work on low-denomination notes of this era is technically consistent, though the 1 Bolívar series attracted little collector attention precisely because it circulated heavily and wore fast.