100 000 Intis

By 1988, Peru's Inti was in freefall. Annual inflation had already exceeded 1,700 percent that year and would climb past 3,000 percent before the currency was abandoned entirely in 1991. The 100,000-Inti note — the highest denomination issued for the series — was made necessary not by economic prosperity but by a monetary collapse driven largely by Alan García's first administration: price controls, nationalization attempts, and a unilateral cap on debt service payments that effectively isolated Peru from international credit.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement is the one constant across Peru's chaotic banknote production of this period. The Inti itself had only been introduced in 1985 to replace the Sol at a rate of 1,000 to one — a ratio that looks almost quaint in hindsight.