4 Pesos

The Confederación de Venezuela — the first Venezuelan republic — declared independence in July 1811 and almost immediately faced a currency crisis. Spanish colonial coinage was scarce, hoarded, or simply absent, and the new government needed a functioning medium of exchange. This 4 Pesos note was part of an emergency paper emission authorized that same year, making it among the earliest paper money ever issued on Venezuelan soil.

The republic itself collapsed by 1812, first under internal revolt and then under royalist reconquest. Virtually no institutional infrastructure survived. Notes from this emission that escaped destruction are genuinely rare primary documents of a government that lasted less than a year.