5000 Escudos

Chile's escudo was already in freefall by the time this note entered circulation — inflation had run at over 600% annually in 1973, and the military junta that deposed Allende in September of that year inherited a currency effectively in collapse. The 5000 escudo denomination, unthinkable just years earlier, was a direct consequence of that spiral.

The series ran only until 1975, when Chile replaced the escudo entirely with the peso at a rate of 1000 escudos to 1 peso, rendering every note in this series obsolete within months. Three signature combinations are documented across series A and B, reflecting the rapid turnover in economic leadership during the junta's early restructuring — Pablo Baraona Urzúa, who appears on the later series B pairings, went on to serve as Minister of Economy under Pinochet.