500 Cordobas

Nicaragua's 1985 500 Córdobas arrived during a period of catastrophic monetary deterioration — the Sandinista government's deficit spending had pushed inflation into four-digit annual rates by the mid-1980s, making notes of this denomination obsolete almost as fast as they could be distributed. The Canadian Bank Note Company contract was a practical choice; CBN had printed Nicaraguan issues across multiple governments and already held workable plate arrangements for the series.

The watermark is the sole security provision — no security thread, no fluorescent elements. For a high-denomination note circulating in an economy hemorrhaging value, that was thin protection against counterfeiting, though the speed of devaluation arguably made forgery economically pointless.