3000 Bolívares Simon Bolivar

Venezuela struck this coin in 1983 to mark the bicentennial of Simón Bolívar's birth, part of a broader commemorative program issued while the country was simultaneously experiencing one of its worst modern economic crises. On February 18th of that same year — a date Venezuelans call "Viernes Negro," Black Friday — the bolívar was devalued sharply after the government abandoned the fixed exchange rate, ending decades of relative monetary stability built largely on petroleum revenues. A gold commemorative issued in a year of currency collapse carries a certain uncomfortable irony.