2 Quetzales Banco Central de Guatemala, 2nd. print

Waterlow & Sons produced this series for Guatemala across a print run that spanned the late 1930s into the early 1940s — a period when the Ubico regime maintained rigid monetary conservatism, keeping the Quetzal pegged at strict parity with the US dollar. That parity, held since 1925, meant the government had strong political incentive to control note quality and limit overissue. Waterlow, then handling currency contracts across Latin America simultaneously, was the natural choice.

The distinction between Pick 15 and 18A within this issue relates to signature combinations, not redesign — a point that trips up attribution more often than it should.