Q5 — Five Quetzales
The artwork
Front: General Justo Rufino Barrios in three-quarter view, bald and heavily bearded, engraved against a deep wine-red ground of stepped Maya fretwork; the line beneath names him President of the Republic 1873–1885, reformer of the country and promoter of Central American union. A resplendent quetzal, the national bird, flies left across the pale field above the serial number. Title panel reads Banco de Guatemala, Guatemala Centro America, with CINCO QUETZALES in red.
Back: A primary school classroom: a teacher leaning over an open book with four small children, a blackboard behind carrying AEIOU, ABCDE and the numerals one to ten, the Guatemalan flag furled in the corner. The caption records that Barrios established primary education as free, secular and compulsory. Flanking panels carry seated Maya glyph figures, a stone mask and large outlined 5s over green and buff.
In circulation
The Barrios five-quetzal design with the schoolroom reverse ran through the 1990s and 2000s, reprinted under successive authorisation dates, this one 29 July 1998. A polymer five quetzales appeared in 2011, and later paper printings carried updated dates and added security work, so notes of this vintage steadily left circulation.
Details
- IssuerBanco de Guatemala — "Guatemala Centro America"
- CurrencyQuetzal (Q)
- DenominationFive Quetzales
- Collectedon the Guatemala journey, 2003
- SeriesAutorización 29 de julio de 1998; serial C02831355B, letter prefix and suffix
- SignatureThree: Presidente, Gerente, and Contralor General de Cuentas