1000 Cordobas

Nicaragua in 1984 was deep in the Contra War, with the Sandinista government facing both an armed insurgency and a U.S. trade embargo that was tightening its grip on the economy. The 1000 Córdoba denomination — high by the standards of the early revolutionary issue series — was already being outpaced by inflation that would eventually force a complete currency replacement in 1988, when the new córdoba was introduced at 1,000 old to one.

Thomas De La Rue retained the printing contract despite Nicaragua's alignment with Cuba and the Soviet bloc, a pragmatic arrangement that says more about the international banknote industry than about Cold War politics. The watermark security is modest for a De La Rue product of this period, reflecting either cost constraints on the Nicaraguan side or the understood short lifespan of the denomination.