Catalog
20 000 Pesos Bolivianos
| Issuer | Banco Central de Bolivia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
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| Currency | Peso boliviano (1963-1986) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO CENTRAL DE BOLIVIA CHEQUE DE GERENCIA DECRETO SUPREMO NO. 20272 DE 5 DE JUNIO DE 1984 LA PAZ, 20 DE JUNIO DE 1984 PAGUESE AL PORTADOR $B. 20.000,00 VEINTE MIL PESOS BOLIVIANOS $B. 20.000,00 (Translation: Central Bank of Bolivia Management Cheque Supreme Decree # 20272 of June 5th., 1984 La Paz, June 20TH., 1984 Be paid to the bearer $b. 20,000.00 Twenty Thousand Pesos Bolivianos $b. 20,000.00) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ESTE CHEQUE TIENE CIRCULACION LEGAL A NIVEL NACIONAL Y SIRVE PARA PAGO DE TRANSACCIONES PUBLICAS Y PRIVADAS $b. 20000 (Translation: This check is legal tender at national level and is valid for payment of public and private transactions. $b. 20000) |
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| Comments |
Bolivia's inflation crisis of the early 1980s was among the worst in recorded history — by 1985, annual inflation had exceeded 20,000 percent, and the peso boliviano was being replaced by denominations that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier. This 20,000-note was not an outlier; it was a routine transactional instrument in a system rapidly losing coherence.
Jeffries Banknote Company, a Los Angeles firm that handled work for several Latin American central banks during this period, printed the series. Bolivia's reliance on foreign printers for emergency high-denomination issues was partly logistical — domestic capacity could not keep pace with demand. The peso boliviano series was eventually abandoned entirely in 1987 with the introduction of the boliviano at a conversion rate of one million to one.