100 Quetzales

Guatemala's Q100 note was the highest denomination in circulation during a period when the quetzal was under sustained pressure — the official exchange rate had been artificially pegged at 1:1 with the US dollar for decades, a fiction that collapsed in the mid-1980s when the free market rate diverged sharply. By the time this series was issued, the peg was gone and the central bank was managing a currency that had lost significant purchasing power.

De La Rue's London production is consistent with Guatemala's long-standing preference for offshore security printing, a relationship that predates this series by several decades.