100 Córdobas

Nicaragua's monetary system was in freefall by 1990. The Sandinista government had spent the decade printing córdobas to finance war against the Contras, and inflation had rendered earlier denominations worthless — the córdoba had already been redenominated once in 1988, at a rate of 1,000 old to 1 new. This note belongs to a brief transitional series issued in the final weeks of the Ortega administration before Violeta Chamorro's electoral victory in February forced yet another monetary restructuring.

Thomas De La Rue supplied the notes from London, though the timing meant many were barely in circulation before the córdoba oro replaced them later that year at a devastating conversion rate of 5 million to one.