500 Bolívares

Banco de Venezuela was a private commercial bank operating under government concession, not a central bank — Venezuela would not establish the Banco Central until 1940. Notes issued under this arrangement carried the full weight of private liability, backed by the bank's own reserves rather than any state guarantee. The 500 Bolívares denomination was the highest in regular circulation for the period, making it almost exclusively an instrument of commercial and interbank settlement rather than everyday trade.

American Bank Note Company produced the series in New York, as was common for Latin American issuers of the era who lacked domestic security printing facilities of sufficient quality. ABNC's intaglio work on Venezuelan paper from this period is generally crisp, though some known examples from the later end of the 1916–1921 date range show ink saturation inconsistencies attributable to plate wear.