The Quetzal replaced the Peso in 1925 following Guatemala's monetary reform under the Orellana government, but the fractional denomination — the Centavo de Quetzal — had an awkward commercial life. By the late 1950s, small-denomination paper was already being squeezed out by coin circulation, and these notes saw relatively brief issue before the series was discontinued.
ABNC held long-standing contracts with Guatemalan authorities through much of the mid-twentieth century, and the plate work on this series reflects their standard intaglio production of the period — competent, consistent, and largely indistinguishable from dozens of other Latin American commissions coming out of their Broad Street facilities at the time.
The Quetzal replaced the Peso in 1925 following Guatemala's monetary reform under the Orellana government, but the fractional denomination — the Centavo de Quetzal — had an awkward commercial life. By the late 1950s, small-denomination paper was already being squeezed out by coin circulation, and these notes saw relatively brief issue before the series was discontinued.
ABNC held long-standing contracts with Guatemalan authorities through much of the mid-twentieth century, and the plate work on this series reflects their standard intaglio production of the period — competent, consistent, and largely indistinguishable from dozens of other Latin American commissions coming out of their Broad Street facilities at the time.