Strength and Sovereignty
VEN102a, 2018, 5 VES

Slot Comment:

Bolivares Soberanos (Sovereign Bolivar)

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 5 Bolívares 2018 - Printer: CMV
Grade: 68 EPQ
Country: Venezuela
Note Number: VEN102a
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Wmk: S. Bolívar & BCV
Certification #: 8083349-039
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Strength and Sovereignty
Slot Name: VEN102a, 2018, 5 VES
Research: Currently not available

Owner's Description

The front of this not features Jose Felix Ribas. He came from a wealthy family - the last of 11 sons - and at the age of 21 married the aunt of Simon Bolivar. He became revolutionary and pro-independence, joining the Conspiracy of 1808 and landing in prison for it when it failed. He lied in his defense and claimed he was just going to the square to spend time when he went to join others working on planning an uprising.

Despite having no military background, Ribas was named Colonel of the Barlovento Battalion - which he helped set up with his own money. He also maintained some contact with Francisco de Miranda and offered him all possible support when Miranda arrived in the country. Along with other fellow Republicans, he became a member of the Sociedad Patriótica organized by Francisco de Miranda, in contradistinction to the New Venezuelan Congress which was ruled mostly by the landed few. The Sociedad Patriótica was modeled after a French Jacobin Club, encouraging the practice of oratory on equality of rights to all citizens.

He led the battle of La Victoria (12 February 1814) in which he and his comrades succeeded in foiling the advance royalist forces. Ribas won by holding out with inexperienced troops - composed mainly of youths, students, and seminary candidates that Ribas had succeeded in recruiting - until Republican reinforcements arrived under Vincente Campo Elias. Ribas told his young soldiers, "We have no choice between victory or death, we must achieve victory" ("No podemos optar entre vencer o morir, es necesario vencer"). It is in honor of this episode of Venezuelan history that modern Venezuelan citizens now celebrate the "Día de la Juventud" ("Day of Youth"), each 12 February.

The back of this note features an Atelopus cruciger with the Henri Pittier National Park in the background.

Atelopus cruciger is also known as the “Veragua Stubfoot Toad” or “Rancho Grande Harlequin Frog” and locally known as sapito rayado (“Scratched Toad”). It is native to Venezuela and was thought to have been extinct - in spite of a major conservation effort - because none had been found since 1986 - the year I was born. However, a small population was found in 2003 - and they live in Henri Pittier National Park, the park in the background of this image. It is mainly threatened by chytridiomycosis - an infectious disease in amphibians, caused by the chytrid fungi. This sets them apart from most of the other species on these modern Venezuelan notes in that they aren’t primarily threatened by human action - though some seem to believe that acid rain and air pollution could also be playing a role in their decline.

In fairness, adult males are only 28-35 mm and adult females are only 40-50 mm… so it seems like they’d be easy to miss. They mostly eat small insects.

Henri Pittier National Park is the oldest national park in Venezuela, originally created in 1937 under the name of Rancho Grande by decree of President Eleazar López Contreras. In 1953 the park was renamed in honor of Henri Pittier, a distinguished Swiss geographer, botanist and ethnologist, who arrived in Venezuela in 1917, classified more than 30,000 plants in the country and devoted many years to studying the flora and fauna in the park. It is, as with so many other national parks featured on these notes, on the North-Central coastline and not terribly far from Caracas. It was originally a 90,000-hectare park, but in 1974 the government appended another 17,800 hectares, resulting in a current area of 107,800 hectares. It consists of two geographic systems: a steep mountainous interior where there are more than 500 bird species and 22 endemic species and a coastal area with bays, beaches and resorts with huge tourism potential. It is an Important Bird Area. and is an Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) site. With its nine major rivers, the park is also an important source of water for surrounding cities and towns and contains land where some of the best cacao in the world is cultivated.

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