5 Quetzales

The Banco de Guatemala transitioned its note production to the Canadian Bank Note Company during a period when several Latin American central banks were quietly consolidating their printing contracts with North American security printers. CBN had been handling Guatemalan issues for some years by this point, and the Ottawa-produced notes for this series reflect the firm's characteristic registration quality — rarely a problem with their output, which is part of why the relationship held.

The security thread used in this series was a relatively early adoption for Guatemalan paper currency at this denomination level, introduced as counterfeit pressure on Central American notes increased through the late 1980s and early 1990s.