Currency today : Venezuela 03

In my first post, I mentionned already the different signatures on the Venezolan banknotes.
In this post, I like to go in a bit deeper to this topic.

There are 10 printing dates on the banknotes issued between 2007 and 2015.

The signatures are from the President of the Banco Central de Venezuela and the First Vice President of the Central Bank.

The Presidents of the Central Bank of Venezuela who have their signatures on the latest notes, are :

Gastón Parra Luzardo	2005	2009
Nelson Merentes Díaz	2009	2013
Edmée Betancourt	2013
Eudomar Tovar	2013	2014
Nelson Merentes Díaz	2014	In office

Nelson Merentez Díaz

Regarding the signatures, 6 combinations can be found:
Combination A : 2007 (I and II)
Combination B : 2008 (III)
Combination C : 2009 (IV)
Combination D : 2011 (V), 2012 (VI and VII) and 2014 (IX)
Combination E : 2013 (VIII)
Combination F : 2015 (X)

Comb A : Gastón Parra Luzardo and José Ferrer Navas

Comb B : José Ferrer Navas and Bernardo Ferrán

Comb C : Nelson José Merentes Díaz and José Ferrer Navas

Comb D : Nelson José Merentes Díaz and Eudomar Tovar

Comb E : Eudomar Tovar and José Khan

Comb F : Nelson José Merentes Díaz and José Khan

Next to the signatures above, also the printing dates are mentionned on the notes.

Examples of date 20 March 2007 (I)

20 bolivar - series I

 Examples of date 24 May 2007 (II)

5 bolivar - series II

100 bolivar - series II

Examples of date 19 December 2008 (III)

5 bollivar - series III

20 bolivar - series III

100 bolivar - series III

 Examples of date 3 September 2009 (IV)

5 bolivar - series IV

10 bolivar - series IV

20 bolivar - series IV

100 bolivar - series IV

 Examples of date 3 February 2011 (V)

5 bolivar - series V

10 bolivar - series V

20 bolivar - series V

50 bolivar - series V

100 bolivar - series V

 Examples of date 31 January 2012 (VI)

2 bolivar - series VI

50 bolivar - series VI

100 bolivar - series VI

Examples of date 27 December 2012 (VII)

2 bolivar - series VII

50 bolivar - series VII

100 bolivar - series VII

 Examples of date 29 October 2013 (VIII)

5 bolivar - series VIII

10 bolivar - series VIII

20 bolivar - series VIII

50 bolivar - series VIII

100 bolivar - series VIII

 Examples of date 19 August 2014 (IX)

10 bolivar - series IX

20 bolivar - series IX

50 bolivar - series IX

100 bolivar - series IX

 Examples of date 23 june 2015 (X)

50 bolivar - series X

100 bolivar - series X

So far most of the notes in circulation. Some are still missing, such as most of the first series (March 2007).
The older notes are probably taken out of circulation already, so they are harder to find in a decent condition. Especially because of the enormous amount of notes in circulation already.

to be continued ...

Currency today : Venezuela 02

In my first post, I introduced the banknotes currently in use in Venezuela.
There are 6 notes in circulation, from 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 Bolívares fortes (strong bolivar).
With the first set in 2007, also a 200-note would be introduced. So far the highest denomination is still the 100 Bolívares note.

announced, not issued

announced, not issued note of 200 VEF

After the elections in 2015, a new note of 500 and 1000 is announced, but was not in use yet in January 2016.
Because of the urgent need of higher note values, I guess before June 2016, a 500 and or 1000 Bolóvares note will be released.

From the notes in circulation, there are 10 printing dates know.
Which gives a possible range of 60 different notes.
However some issues are not know (probably not even issued).

In yellow are the known issues of the banknotes of each value.
In green the ones I have in my collection, with some of the seen serial numbers.
I guess, the yellow coloured fields will represent the missing numbers, starting with A in 2007.

In the right column, I refer to signature combinations as they apprear on the notes.
A visual of those signatures can be found in my previous post on Venezolan currency, and will be discussed in later posts.

Finally the white fields refer to years where no note was printed, or at least where no information was available at this moment.

Anyone with more information about this matter can always leave a message, it will be greatly appreciated.

Currency today : Venezuela 01

When you plan to Visit south / latin America, Venezuela might not be the first country that comes into your mind for touristic reasons - however there is a lot to see as well!
But Venezuela is definitely a very intersting country to visit, for banknote collectors.
And this for various reasons.
First and for all, the circulating money, is for 99 % consisting out of bank notes.
Although there are some coins still in circulation, the value is so low, that they are hardly used.
From the coins I have in my collection, only few I got back as change. All the others were 'found' on the floor of subway, in public phone boxes or even just on the street.

After the devaluation of the bolivar in 2007, 6 new notes came into circulation.
2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 bolivares fuertes (strong bolivars) - all notes are very nice, good quality printing, beautiful design, .... although the actual value is quite low, the printing is outstanding, but I'll come back to that point later on.

A third reason to collect the notes, is that the notes were printed on several dates.
So far there are 10 different printing dates - and although not all notes are confirmed to be printed each time, it gives the possibility of 10 times 6 notes = 60 different banknotes in circulation.

And the best of all... the full (expected) set of 60 notes represent in total 1122 bolivares (10 times : 100 + 50 + 20 + 10 + 5 + 2). Depending on the exchange rate this represents more or less 1.25 USD!
Reason enough to start hunting the notes.

Overview all notes of Venezuela

In my later reports, I will go into detail for each note and the know issues of the printing dates.

For a quick overview, here are the 10 printing dates so far :

Issue - printing date
I    -    20 marzo de 2007 (20 March 2007) - A
II   -    24 mayo de 2007 (24 May 2007) - A
III  -    19 dicembre de 2008 (19 December 2008) - B
IV  -    3 septembre de 2009 (3 September 2009) - C
V   -    3 febrero de 2011 (3 February 2011) - D
VI  -   31 enero de 2012 (31 January 2012) - D
VII -   27 dicembre de 2012 (27 December 2012) - D
VIII -  29 octubre de 2013 (29 October 2013) - E
IX   -  19 agosto de 2014 (19 August 2014) - D
X    -   23 junio de 2015 (23 June 2015) - F

Regarding the signatures, 6 combinations of signatures can be distinguished:
Sign A :

combination A : 2007 (I and II)

Sign B :

combination B : 2008 (III)

Sign C :

combination C : 2009 (IV)

Sign D :

combination D : 2011, 2012 and 2014 (V, VI, VII and IX)

Sign E :

combination E : 2013 (VIII)

Sign F :

combination F : 2015 (X)

So far the basic information. More in detail in the following posts.