50 Bolívares

The Banco Central de Venezuela was only established in 1940, making the earliest examples of this series among the first notes ever issued by the institution. Venezuela's central bank came into existence specifically to wrest monetary control away from the private commercial banks — primarily the Banco de Venezuela and Banco de Caracas — that had previously held that privilege. The transition was not smooth, and the BCV spent its first years consolidating authority over a banking sector that had issued its own notes for decades.

ABNC held the contract for most of the BCV's early series. The twenty-year span of this issue reflects how stable Venezuelan finances remained through the oil boom of the 1950s — there was simply no pressing reason to redesign.