500 Bolívares

By 2004, Venezuela's monetary system was already buckling under exchange controls imposed the previous year by the Chávez government following the catastrophic general strike of 2002–2003, which had paralyzed PDVSA and collapsed oil output. The 500 bolívar coin — worth roughly 26 U.S. cents at the official rate that year — was among the highest-denomination coins still in practical circulation, though rampant inflation was steadily pushing everyday transactions toward paper.

Within two years, the entire bolívar coinage series would be rendered obsolete by the redenomination that created the bolívar fuerte in 2008, at a conversion rate of 1,000 to 1.