Catalog
10 Quetzales
| Issuer | Banco de Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central multicolour vignette of the 1872 session of the Asamblea Nacional Legislativa, rendered as a detailed engraved historical scene with legislators assembled in a formal chamber, the Guatemalan coat of arms mounted above the presiding dais draped in national colours. Mayan glyph panels frame the scene at left and right, accompanied by an intaglio Mayan deity figure at lower right and the national flag in blue and white. The issuer name appears in the top guilloche band, with 'DIEZ QUETZALES' in bold letterpress along the lower margin and the printer's imprint 'OBERTHUR TECHNOLOGIES' at foot centre. |
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| Protection type | Watermark, Security thread |
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| Comments |
Oberthur Technologies produced this series for Guatemala across the 2000s, and the P#117 specification reflects one of the more quietly competent commercial security printing contracts of that decade — no experimental substrates, no polymer trials, just solid intaglio work on cotton stock with conventional thread and watermark protection. Guatemala had experimented with polymer on smaller denominations elsewhere in the region's broader modernization push, but held to paper for the 10 Quetzales throughout this period.
The quetzal itself, as a monetary unit, dates to 1925, when Guatemala tied the new currency to the US dollar at par — a peg that held officially until the 1980s.