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20 Quetzales
| Issuer | Banco de Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 1972-1988 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Intaglio portrait of Doctor Mariano Galvez, procer de la independencia and head of state of Guatemala in the Central American Federation, occupies the right half of the note in fine engraved style against a light guilloche underprint. A central vignette of the Guatemalan quetzal bird in flight is set against a multicolour underprint, flanked by the large numeral "20" at lower left and right. Three manuscript signatures appear along the lower margin, assigned to the Presidente, Gerente, and Jefe de la Contraloria de Cuentas, with the authorization date "6 Enero 1988" inscribed at lower right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A large central intaglio vignette illustrates the signing of the Central American Act of Independence, with numerous historical figures gathered around a table in a colonial interior setting. The composition is framed by a fine guilloche border, with Mayan-inspired geometric textile patterns in blue and ochre tones to the right, and repeating microtext security underprint bands along the side margins. Denomination numerals "20" appear at lower left and right corners flanking the legend below the vignette. |
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| Comments |
Thomas De La Rue printed this series for Guatemala across a sixteen-year span, an unusually long run that reflects both the political instability of the period and the practical difficulty of establishing domestic printing capacity. Guatemala spent much of the 1970s and 1980s under successive military governments, and currency continuity — same design, same printer, same security specification — was one of the few constants the Banco de Guatemala could reliably maintain.
Dating individual notes within the 1972–1988 window matters considerably for cataloging purposes; the series includes multiple signature combinations tied to short-tenure finance ministers and central bank presidents who changed with each administration.