5000 Bolívares José Antonio Páez

Venezuela's 1990 gold issue came at a moment of acute national crisis. The February 1989 Caracazo — a wave of riots and looting triggered by IMF-mandated austerity measures under President Carlos Andrés Pérez — had left hundreds dead and shaken confidence in the bolívar. High-denomination commemorative gold issues of this period were effectively bullion instruments aimed at domestic and foreign investors, not circulating currency, as the bolívar itself was losing ground rapidly against the dollar throughout the early 1990s.

Páez was Venezuela's first post-independence president, taking office in 1830 after the dissolution of Gran Colombia.