10 Quetzales

BA International — the late-period trading name of British American Bank Note Company — handled much of Guatemala's printing through the 1990s, a relationship that stretched back decades and outlasted several of the region's more turbulent monetary episodes. By 1998, Guatemala had recently emerged from a peace process ending 36 years of internal armed conflict, and the banking system was under pressure to modernize security infrastructure. The thread and watermark combination on this series was a modest step in that direction, though Guatemala's currency reforms of the early 2000s would soon push the Quetzal toward more sophisticated polymer and hybrid formats.