Strength and Sovereignty
VEN92, 2007-2016, 50 VEF

Slot Comment:

Bolivares Fuertes (Strong Bolivar)

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 50 Bolívares 2015 - Printer: CMV
Grade: 66 EPQ
Country: Venezuela
Note Number: VEN92k
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Wmk: S. Rodriguez & 50
Certification #: 8047658-017
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Strength and Sovereignty
Slot Name: VEN92, 2007-2016, 50 VEF
Research: See PMG's Census Report for this Note

Owner's Description

At the time it was announced and placed into circulation, at least officially, this note was worth about US$23.25.



Beginning in 2014 the price of oil plummeted from over $100/bbl at the time to $40/bbl a year and a half later. This placed pressure on the Venezuelan economy and left the government unable to afford vast social programs. To counter the decrease in oil prices, the Venezuelan Government began taking more money from PDVSA, the state oil company, to meet budgets, resulting in a lack of reinvestment in fields and employees - to include basic maintenance from what I have heard. Venezuela's oil production decreased from its peak of nearly 3 million to 1 million barrels per day. By 2015, Venezuela had the highest inflation rate in the world.



In January 2016, President Maduro decreed an "economic emergency", revealed the extent of the crisis, and used that to expand his powers. In July 2016, Colombian border crossings were temporarily opened to allow Venezuelans to purchase food and basic household and health items in Colombia. In September 2016, a study published in the Spanish-language Diario Las Américas indicated that 15% of Venezuelans are eating "food waste discarded by commercial establishments".



Nearly 200 riots had occurred in Venezuelan prisons by October 2016, according to Una Ventana a la Libertad, an advocacy group for better prison conditions. The father of an inmate at Táchira Detention Center in Caracas alleged that his son was cannibalized by other inmates during a month-long riot - a claim corroborated by an anonymous police source but denied by the Minister of Correctional Affairs.



The Bolivar Fuerte officially entered hyperinflation in November 2016 - only about a month before the government announced the release of the “Series 2” notes. The inflation rate in 2017 was 1087.5%.



In 2017, Venezuela experienced a constitutional crisis - opposition leaders branded President Nicolas Maduro a dictator after the Maduro-aligned Supreme Tribunal, which had been overturning most National Assembly decisions since the opposition took control of the body, took over the functions of the assembly. The supreme court was forced to back down from this a month later and then Maduro announced a Constituent Assembly which then stripped the National Assembly - lead by his opposition - of its powers.



In December 2017, President Maduro declared that leading opposition parties would be barred from taking part in following year's presidential vote after they boycotted mayoral polls. Maduro then, of course, won the 2018 election with 67.8% of the vote. The result was challenged by countries including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, France, and the United States who deemed it fraudulent and moved to recognize Juan Guaidó as president. Other countries including Cuba, China, Russia, Turkey, and Iran continued to recognize Maduro as president, although China, facing financial pressure over its position, reportedly began hedging its position by decreasing loans given, cancelling joint ventures, and signaling willingness to work with all parties. This was another blow to Venezuela’s economy with oil still averaging only about $55/barrel in 2017 and Venezuela only exporting about half as much as it did at its peak- about 1.5 Million barrels a day.



Circling back a little to what I said in the description for the VEN88 note, you cannot chalk what happened in Venezuela up exclusively to the great financial crisis of 2008 or the crash in oil prices or the socialist policies of Chavez - even though all of those closely coincided with the hyperinflation and the run-up to it.



Rather, you have a country with a lot of a certain type of natural resource and that natural resource had a big run-up in price at the same time a socialist regime came to power. This run-up in price and interest in that one commodity crowded out investment in everything else in the country and caused the whole country - and the government - to become overly dependent on that one industry - “the Dutch disease.” And this made the country and the government feel flush enough to start spending a lot of money on big programs. Then, as always happens, when there was a downturn on that one industry / commodity, the whole economy took a massive hit - as did government coffers - but the government did not want to accept this, scale back spending, and tell people that things were about to get leaner.



So, they printed money, and the currency hyperinflated.



It was not the crash in oil that caused this. It was the crash coming on so hard after a big run-up and the high prices lasting just long enough to convince everyone that the high prices were here to stay and that those social spending programs were sustainable.



The Bolivares Fuertes notes were mostly issued in two 6-note series that can basically be thought of as a "Series 1" and "Series 2". The "Series 2" notes use the same designs, in the same order of ascending denominations, but with different color schemes and face values. The “Series 1” notes released in 2007 alongside a new group of 7 coins, which included a 1 Bolivar coin. This is the reason the lowest note in this series is the 2 Bolivar note. The government had intended that the "Series 1" notes - which were basically worthless by the time "Series 2" came out (in 2016) - would be withdrawn from circulation. So, these two groups of notes were not meant to circulate together and so there was less perceived risk with people getting the notes confused with each other. The “Series 2” notes came out with new 10 Boilvar, 50 Bolivar, and 100 Bolivar coins that were supposed to replace VEN90, VEN92, and VEN93 with coins. As a result, VEN92 and VEN98 look essentially the same.



The front of this note shows a portrait of Simón Rodríguez. The back of this note shows a Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatos) with Laguna Santo Cristo at Sierra Nevada National Park in the background. For more information on the design of this note and the significance of the people and things in it, look at my description for VEN98.



In case anyone ever wonders, the words “pagaderos al portador en las oficinas del banco” under the denomination translate to “payable to the bearer at the bank’s offices.”

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