Catalog
50 Dollars - Elizabeth II Coral crab
| Issuer | Central Bank of Belize |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Hybrid substrate (paper bonded with gold foil) |
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| Obverse description | Right portion bears a front-facing crowned bust of Queen Elizabeth II in the Kokoshnik Tiara, with a vignette of the Altun Ha Maya temple at centre and the Coat of Arms of Belize at lower right. A queen angelfish (Holacanthus ciliaris) vignette occupies the upper left. The legends arc across the upper and lower margins, with the denomination indicated in numerals at lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A jaguar (Panthera onca) is shown at left before a palm tree, with a coral crab vignette at centre. A left-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the State Diadem appears at upper right, alongside a carved jade head of the Maya sun god Kinich Ahau at right. Signature and title panels occupy the lower portion of the note. |
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| Comments |
P#CS1 is a souvenir card rather than a circulating banknote — issued by the Central Bank of Belize as a collectible, not as legal tender intended for commerce. The gold foil bonding is the point: this was a deliberate showcase of novelty substrate technology in the early 1980s, when several central banks experimented with such formats for prestige issues and collector markets rather than out of any monetary necessity.
Belize had only established its Central Bank in 1982, two years before this piece appeared. That context matters — the institution was young and this kind of high-profile collector issue was partly a visibility exercise.