100 Colones

The Banco Central de Reserva de El Salvador leaned heavily on the American Bank Note Company throughout the mid-twentieth century, and this series continued that relationship well into the 1980s — an era when ABNCo was itself in financial difficulty, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1990. Notes from the tail end of ABNCo's active production period are worth tracking for that reason alone.

El Salvador's 100 Colones circulated during one of the country's most economically turbulent decades, with remittances, capital flight, and a parallel dollar economy all distorting the formal currency supply. High-denomination notes from this period often show heavy circulation wear precisely because the banking infrastructure outside San Salvador was thin.