5 Quetzales Banco de Guatemala, 1st. type

Guatemala's central bank was only established in 1946, replacing the older Banco Central de Guatemala as part of the sweeping economic reforms under the Arévalo administration. This 5 Quetzales type was among the earliest issues from the new institution, printed by the American Bank Note Company — the same New York firm responsible for a large share of Latin American currency work through the mid-twentieth century.

The series spans 1948–1958, crossing the 1954 coup that ousted Jacobo Árbenz. Notes issued in the early part of the run circulated under a democratically elected government; later dates under the Castillo Armas junta. The paper itself carries no record of that rupture, but the decade of continuous design use reflects a deliberate institutional stability projected through the currency.