Catalog
10 Quetzales
| Issuer | Banco de Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 1959 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 Quetzales |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in red and pink tones on a light guilloche underprint. At upper centre, the bank title BANCO DE GUATEMALA and GUATEMALA, CENTRO AMERICA are inscribed in letterpress. The large numeral 10 appears in each corner, flanked by a quetzal bird vignette at upper left and a circular Mayan calendar stone medallion at right centre. The denomination DIEZ QUETZALES is set in a central cartouche, with the serial number printed twice — at upper left and lower right — and three manuscript signatures of bank officials along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANCO DE GUATEMALA DIEZ QUETZALES 10 FUNDACION DE LA ANTIGUA GUATEMALA |
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| Comments |
Waterlow & Sons had been printing Guatemalan notes since the 1920s, and by 1959 the relationship was in its final years — the British firm collapsed into insolvent liquidation in 1961 after the Pérès forgery scandal, one of the most damaging security printing frauds of the twentieth century. Any note bearing their imprint from this late period carries a certain historical weight that has nothing to do with Guatemala.
The P#46 series ran through several date varieties. Watermark security on Guatemalan issues of this period was relatively modest by contemporary standards — no security thread, no color-shifting ink, just the paper itself doing the work.