Strength and Sovereignty
VEN114a, 2021, 1,000,000 VES

Slot Comment:

Bolivares Soberanos (Sovereign Bolivar)

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Note Details

  

Set Details
Note Description: 1,000,000 Bolívares 2020 (ND 2021)
Grade: 68 EPQ
Country: Venezuela
Note Number: VEN114a
Signatures/
Vignettes: 		- Printer: CMV
- Wmk: S. Bolívar & BCV
Certification #: 8090521-004
Owner: Revenant
Set Category: World
Set Name: Strength and Sovereignty
Slot Name: VEN114a, 2021, 1,000,000 VES
Research: Currently not available

Owner's Description

The release of the three new 2021 banknotes was announced on Friday, 5 March 2021. At the time of the announcement, even according to official exchange rates, which are almost always better than black market rates, this note was only worth about US$0.53.

For the front the 2021 notes are essentially identical to the 2019 notes with the same portrait of Simon Bolivar but with different colors used to make it easier to tell the notes apart. The VEN112 and VEN113 also use the ““Mausoleum of the Liberator” reverse from the 2019 notes. However, the VEN114, the 1 Million Bolivar note, used a new design for the reverse – a design that they later re-used for the new Digital Bolivar notes released starting in late 2021.

The release of this note is one of those times when people are “making history” in the worst possible way. It was the first and, so far, the only time a denomination of 1 Million Bolivares had been used by the BCV. The original VEB notes capped at 50,000 with the VEF capping at 100,000. So, this was the highest denomination they’d ever printed by an order of magnitude – and when they released it, it was barely worth as much in trade as 2 American Quarters. You could almost have them 2 for a dollar.

It was only 5 months later, however, in early August 2021, that information leaked that the BCV was going to try launching a new Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), called the “Digital Bolivar, ”and lop off 6 zeros from the VES in the process.

In an oddly... confusingly... the information leased leading up to the move indicated that 5 new banknotes denominated from 5 to 100 “Digital Bolivares.” Supposedly it was going to be a CBDC, but then making a block-chain based digital currency that trades in tandem with physical money seems really odd and like it would kind of defeat the point of a digital currency.

As it turned out, the new currency was not a CBDC – it was just another, normal, fiat currency – and the “digital” just expressed a desire to retire paper money and go cashless. Something that doesn’t seem like it will be possible in the near term given that so many in the county lack bank accounts and smart phones, and the country’s inability to keep the lights on all the time would make relying solely on electronic payments risky business for the average man and woman on the streets.

The move towards the new currency and the new notes and the new redenomination did, however, make this the last note in the VES series, and meant that, for now at least, this will remain the highest denomination the BCV has ever printed. Maybe next time they’ll hit 10 or 100 Million before they hit the reset button again…

The back of this note commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Carabobo, which is the battle that effectively won the war for Gran Colombia’s independence (Gran Colombia being a collection of most of what eventually became Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama).

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