Catalog
20 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco Central de Venezuela |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941-1959 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Green intaglio-printed note with a decorative frame border. At right, an oval vignette with a portrait of Simón Bolívar; at center, the numeral '20' with the inscription 'VEINTE BOLIVARES' below and the payment clause 'PAGADEROS AL PORTADOR EN LAS OFICINAS DEL BANCO' along the upper margin. Corner counters repeat the denomination numeral '20' in each angle. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO CENTRAL DE VENEZUELA VEINTE BOLIVARES PAGADEROS AL PORTADOR EN LAS OFICINAS DEL BANCO 20 |
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| Comments |
The Banco Central de Venezuela was only established in 1939, and this 20 Bolívares note belongs to the bank's earliest series — issued while the institution was still consolidating control over currency emission from the commercial banks that had previously shared that role. The American Bank Note Company handled most of the BCV's early production, a relationship common among Latin American central banks in that period who lacked domestic security printing capacity.
The series ran across nearly two decades, which means notes dated from the early 1940s and those from the late 1950s share the same Pick number despite reflecting very different economic conditions — Venezuela's oil revenues transformed dramatically across that span.