500 Bolívares

The Banco de Venezuela was a private commercial bank, not a central bank — Venezuela had no central bank until the Banco Central de Venezuela was established in 1940. Notes like this one circulated under a plural banking system in which several private institutions held note-issuing privileges simultaneously, a situation the Bolívar-era government had never fully resolved. The 500 Bolívares denomination was not everyday money; at 1930s exchange rates, it represented serious commercial capital.

ABNC produced the series during a period when Venezuelan oil revenues were reshaping the economy faster than its financial institutions could follow. The Gómez dictatorship — Juan Vicente Gómez died in December 1935, mid-series — maintained tight personal control over banking concessions throughout his rule.