500 Cordobas

Nicaragua's 500 Córdoba note arrived at a complicated moment — the Sandinista government, having come to power in 1979, was managing an economy under mounting pressure from U.S.-backed Contra operations and a trade embargo imposed in 1985. Inflation was already accelerating well before that embargo took hold, and the 500 Córdoba denomination, substantial at its introduction, was being eroded rapidly by the time these notes were in general circulation.

Thomas De La Rue's continued involvement with the Sandinista-era central bank is a quiet irony — the same London printer had produced notes for the Somoza-era Banco Nacional. Political upheaval rarely disrupts long-standing commercial printing contracts.