General Juan Vicente Gómez Chacón

The 1930 gold issue coincides with the centenary of Simón Bolívar's death, which Gómez exploited as a nationalistic spectacle while running Venezuela as a personal fiefdom. He had held power since 1908, alternating between the presidency and the army command to maintain legal fictions of constitutional rule. By 1930 Venezuela's oil revenues — Maracaibo production had made the country one of the world's top exporters by the mid-1920s — gave the regime both the hard currency and the political motive to strike prestige gold coinage.

Gómez died in office in December 1935, still in power after 27 years.