Venezuela new 20-bolívar note (B387a) confirmed

On 1 October 2021, Venezuela redenominated its currency at a rate of 1,000,000:1 (effectively removing six zeroes). The country previously redenominated at a rate of 100,000:1 on 20 August 2018, and at a rate of 1,000:1 on 1 January 2008. Old notes equal to or greater than 10,000 bolívares continued to circulate, while smaller denominations had to be exchanged at banks for newly redenominated notes.

B387 (PNL): 20 bolívares

Orange. Front (vertical): Spanish text; stars; flowers; Simón Bolívar wearing military uniform; running horse; BCV as registration device. Back: Spanish text; coat of arms; Arco de Triunfo (Arch of Triumph) in Campo Carabobo; Martín Tovar y Tovar’s painting, “Batalla de Carabobo” (Battle of Carabobo). Windowed security thread with demetalized BCV. Watermark: Simón Bolívar and electrotype BCV. Printer: CASA DE LA MONEDA-VENEZUELA. 156 x 69 mm. Paper.

a. 29 DE ABRIL DE 2021. Sig. 37: Ortega/Hernández. Prefix A. Intro: 01.10.2021. 

Courtesy of Dennis Zammit.

4 Comments

  1. Once again, the actual printer of this (ugly) note is Goznak.

    Wonder how the current affairs in Russia will impact the already decimated cash supplies in Venezuela…

  2. Do you have nay records about replacements? Is it still prefix “Z” or is there any change with letter “X”?

    1. Author

      No replacement prefixes have been reported or confirmed yet for this denomination, but 10-bolivar B386az is prefix X.

      1. I like collecting replacements, and I have replacements for almost all of those new notes (well: up to the 20-bolivar one, as banks in my city are yet to receive the 50/100-bolivar notes), and the rule of thumb so far (since we’re down to two printers now: Goznak and Venezuelan Mint) for any note issued since 2019 is simple:

        – Small serial: Z, printed in Venezuela.
        – Big serial: X, printed in Russia.

        Security thread is NO LONGER a tell-tale sign for the actual printer, since starting in 2021, our mint has been sourcing paper from Russia with thin threads, and wide threads are no longer in use as our central bank has run out of stock… (FWIW: all wide thread notes starting with the 10000-bolivar note issued in 2019 have been printed in Venezuela and replacements have prefix Z, but the BCV switched to thin thread paper in late 2021 for the final runs of 500k/1-million notes)

        Replacements on Bolivar notes are a relatively recent phenomenon: introduced in 1989 with the 1/2/5-bolivar “emergency” issues, but didn’t became standard for all denominations until 1998 (coincidentally that was the year where the Venezuelan Mint opened for business!), when the BCV decided to stick to prefix Z for those, no matter the printer (except for a few first-issue replacements printed by the new shiny national mint). Those Goznak-printed notes are the most notorious exception to the rule, dunno why they went with X instead of Z, but Goznak have been VERY consistent with that since then.

        @Owen Linzmayer: I would be glad to contribute with scans of all the replacements I have, where I should send them?

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