20 Cordobas

Nicaragua's 1972 issue came at an almost impossible moment: the catastrophic earthquake of December 23rd that year leveled central Managua, killed thousands, and destroyed much of the country's commercial infrastructure. Notes from this series entered circulation into an economy that had just been physically dismantled, with banking operations severely disrupted for weeks afterward.

Thomas De La Rue's printing for the Banco Central during this period was technically consistent with their broader Latin American output — competent intaglio work, reliable security thread integration, nothing experimental. The watermark is the sole machine-readable security feature, which was already modest by 1972 standards.