500 Bolívares

Venezuela's domestic printer, the Casa de la Moneda in Maracay, produced this note during a period of accelerating hyperinflation that would ultimately render the entire bolívar fuerte series worthless within years of issue. By 2016, the 500-bolívar denomination — once meaningful — was worth less than a tenth of a U.S. cent at black market rates, and the government was printing ever-larger denominations in a losing race against monetary collapse.

The security specification is notably thin for a note of this period: watermark and thread only, without the optical variable ink or color-shifting elements found on contemporaneous notes from other inflation-stricken economies. That austerity in security likely reflects the cost pressures facing a state already struggling to import basic printing materials.