50 Bolívares Bicentennial of the birth of Andrés Bello

Andrés Bello — jurist, poet, and the principal architect of the 1855 Chilean Civil Code — was born in Caracas in 1781, making 1981 his bicentennial year. Venezuela commemorated that date with a dedicated note series; unusual for the Banco Central, which rarely issued purpose-designed commemorative paper rather than simply circulating a standard denomination with an overprint.

Thomas De La Rue produced the note in London, as they did for much of Venezuela's paper currency through this period. The security package is minimal — watermark only, which by 1981 was already behind contemporary standards for a denomination of this value.