Catalog
500 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco de Maracaibo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1925-1926 |
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| Currency | Bolívar (1879-1983) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in olive-green and brown tones in the intaglio style typical of American Bank Note Company work. At left, an allegorical female figure seated with classical drapery is accompanied by the Venezuelan coat of arms in an oval vignette below; at center, a large guilloche panel bears the numeral '500' with the text 'ESTE QUINIENTOS' and 'BOLIVARES' flanking it, while a portrait vignette of a young woman with a floral wreath occupies the center-right. The bank title 'BANCO DE MARACAIBO / COMPAÑIA ANONIMA' arcs across the upper center, with 'Maracaibo' and 'CAPITAL B 2.500.000' inscribed at upper left, and the imprint of the American Bank Note Company along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is plain, presenting an unprinted cream-colored cotton paper surface with no design elements, vignettes, or text, consistent with certain high-denomination Venezuelan provincial banknote issues of the early twentieth century. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Maracaibo was a regional commercial bank based in Venezuela's oil-booming northwest, not a central bank — its notes circulated as private banknotes backed by the institution's own reserves at a time when Venezuela had no central bank at all. The Banco Central de Venezuela would not exist until 1940. This 500 Bolívares note is therefore a high-denomination instrument from a transitional monetary moment, when regional private banks still competed to supply currency to a rapidly industrializing economy.
ABNC's work for Venezuelan regional issuers in this period is consistent and technically accomplished. The 1925–1926 dating window is narrow, and surviving high-denomination examples are genuinely uncommon — large notes from private Venezuelan banks were rarely held long by the public and often returned to the issuer.