5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Modified arms

Belize replaced British Honduras as an independent nation in 1981, but the Central Bank itself wasn't established until 1982 — meaning the early note series had to be built almost from scratch under a brand-new institution. The "modified arms" designation in this series distinguishes it from the immediately preceding issues, where the coat of arms carried residual colonial heraldic elements that were subsequently revised to better reflect the independent state's self-presentation.

Thomas De La Rue handled virtually all Belizean output through this period, giving the notes a consistency of production quality that the young central bank couldn't have sourced domestically. P#47 sits in a short window — superseded when the series was updated again in the early 1990s.