5000 Pesos 500 Condores

The dual denomination — 5000 Pesos and 500 Condores simultaneously — reflects Chile's transitional monetary arithmetic of the period, when the Condor (worth 10 Pesos) remained legal tender alongside the Peso. The Condores unit was eventually dropped from notes as the 1960 currency reform approached, which converted 1000 old Pesos into 1 Escudo and rendered both designations obsolete in a single stroke.

Five distinct signature combinations across roughly twelve years of issue make dating individual examples possible with some precision. The shift from 169 mm to 166 mm printed panel width between signature varieties, and the later addition of a security thread to the Trucco/Maschke pairing, are the most useful physical markers for attribution. Printed entirely domestically by the Talleres de Especies Valoradas — Chile's own security printing facility in Santiago — rather than contracted abroad, which was unusual for a note of this denomination in mid-century Latin America.