5 Centavos de Boliviano overprinted on P# 170

Bolivia's hyperinflation crisis of the mid-1980s was severe enough that the government ran out of meaningful denominations before it could print new ones. This note is a stopgap: an existing Boliviano-series note, printed by De La Rue for an earlier monetary regime, pulled back from stock and overprinted to function within the new Bolivar system introduced by Decree 21060 in August 1985 — the emergency stabilization measure that slashed inflation from over 20,000% annually.

The overprint was applied locally in La Paz, not in London. De La Rue supplied the substrate; the conversion was a domestic operation under considerable time pressure.