50 Quetzales

The P#125 series was Guatemala's first to introduce a windowed security thread on the 50 Quetzales denomination, a response to increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting of the note that had circulated through dense informal markets in Guatemala City and along the Mexican border crossing at La Mesilla. Oberthur's contract for the Guatemalan portfolio dates to the early 2000s, and this series reflects their house preference for optically variable ink on higher denominations rather than the foil patches used by competitors in the same period.

Cotton substrate from Oberthur's French facility. The 2012 issue date marks the first year of the redesigned series, with printings continuing through 2020 without significant security upgrades between runs.