10 000 Nuevos Pesos

By 1989, Uruguay's inflation had been running at triple-digit annual rates for years, and the 10,000 Nuevos Peso denomination — unthinkable a decade earlier — was a direct consequence. The Nuevo Peso itself had been introduced in 1975 to replace the original Peso at 1,000:1; this note represents that replacement currency already inflating toward its own eventual obsolescence.

Thomas De La Rue printed the series in London under contract, a long-standing arrangement for Uruguayan central bank issues. The watermark is the sole security concession on this note — a spare specification for a denomination that was, by the time of issue, losing purchasing power faster than counterfeiting posed any serious threat.