Venezuelan Bolivar
Currency

Overview

Venezuela is a tropical country located on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia, Guyana and Brazil. It includes many islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders.

The discovery of oil has made Venezuela one of the leading oil exporters. Earlier and underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as oil, cocoa and coffee, now dominates government revenues and exports with oil.

In fact in 1980s there was 100% inflation peak, rising poverty to 66% and the GDP fell as 1963 year. But, after 2001 the prices of oil recovered and boosted the Venezuelan economy facilitating social spending, but the 2008 global financial crisis gave a renewed economic downturn.

The currency of Venezuela is the Venezuelan Bolivar. The Venezuelan Bolivar is abbreviated as Bs or Bs.F since 1 January 2008 after the new currency release. The plural is bolivares and the currency code of Venezuelan Bolivar as per the ISO 4217 standards is VEB.

History

The Bolivar was adopted in 1879 replacing venezolano that short lived @ 5 bolívares = 1 venezolano. Bolivar was initially defined = 4.5 g fine silver. The law of 1887 made gold Bolivar as the legal tender, and this was in operation until 1910. Venezuela gold went off in 1930, and the Bolivar exchange rate in 1934 was fixed to the U.S. dollar @ 3.914 bolívares = 1 U.S. $.

This was then revalued in 1937 to 3.18 bolívares = 1 U.S. $, a rate that lasted until 1941. Until the year 1983, February 18, the Bolivar was most stable and internationally accepted currency, but fell prey to high devaluation.

From 2010 January 1, officially the Bolivar was pegged at a fixed exchange rate to the U.S. dollar of (type 1) 2.60 bolívares and (type 2) 4.30 bolívares to the dollar by the BCV.

Coins

The coins of Venezuelan Bolivar earlier had same design symbolizing seven stars of the flag. The back side of the coin had coat of arms depicted with the country name, date and denomination. In 2001, the design on the reverse side was changed. The banknotes of higher denominations were introduced in green color