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500 Bolívares
| Issuer | Banco de Maracaibo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1925-1926 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO DE MARACAIBO COMPAÑIA ANONIMA MARACAIBO CAPITAL B 2.500.000 ESTE QUINIENTOS BOLIVARES PAGARÁN AL PORTADOR A SU PRESENTACION EN LAS OFICINAS DEL BANCO 500 AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY |
| Reverse description | The reverse is plain, presenting an unprinted cream-colored cotton paper surface with no design elements, vignettes, or text, consistent with certain high-denomination Venezuelan provincial banknote issues of the early twentieth century. |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Maracaibo was a regional commercial bank based in Venezuela's oil-booming northwest, not a central bank — its notes circulated as private banknotes backed by the institution's own reserves at a time when Venezuela had no central bank at all. The Banco Central de Venezuela would not exist until 1940. This 500 Bolívares note is therefore a high-denomination instrument from a transitional monetary moment, when regional private banks still competed to supply currency to a rapidly industrializing economy.
ABNC's work for Venezuelan regional issuers in this period is consistent and technically accomplished. The 1925–1926 dating window is narrow, and surviving high-denomination examples are genuinely uncommon — large notes from private Venezuelan banks were rarely held long by the public and often returned to the issuer.