5 Cordobas

Nicaragua's 1972 series was printed before the catastrophic earthquake that leveled Managua in December of that year — an event that disrupted not just the physical city but the entire apparatus of government finance. Notes from this printing entered circulation during the subsequent reconstruction chaos, when the Somoza regime's handling of international relief funds became one of the most documented corruption scandals in Central American history.

De La Rue's involvement with Nicaraguan currency ran continuously through the Somoza period. The watermark security on this series is modest by contemporary standards, reflecting the relatively limited counterfeiting pressure Nicaragua faced compared to larger regional economies.