Catalog
5 Quetzales
| Issuer | Banco de Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Year | 1992 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Quetzal (1925-date) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | An intaglio classroom vignette illustrates General Justo Rufino Barrios's establishment of free, secular, and compulsory primary education in Guatemala, rendered in fine line engraving at center. Mayan deity figures form part of the border ornamentation, and a commemorative inscription referencing Barrios's educational reform is incorporated into the design. |
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| Protection type | Watermark, Security thread |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Guatemala series printed by Oberthur in Rennes ran through the 1990s as the bank consolidated printing contracts away from British suppliers it had used in earlier decades. Oberthur's intaglio work on this denomination is competent but unremarkable by the firm's standards — the real engineering interest lies in the embedded security thread, which Guatemala adopted relatively early among Central American issuers as counterfeiting pressure on the quetzal increased through the late 1980s.
Pick 81 was eventually superseded by polymer issues as the region moved away from cotton substrates entirely.