Information about currency: Venezuelan Paper Bolívar

The bolívar went off the gold standard in 1930. In August 1934 the official rate was fixed in terms of the US dollar at 3·915 bolívares per, adjusted to 3·18 per April 27, 1937. Gold coin disappeared from circulation.

Banco Central de Venezuela was created by Congress on July 13, 1939 (effective September 8). It began operations in October 1940, at which time there were six note-issuing banks (Banco de Maracaibo, Banco de Venezuela, Banco Caracas, Banco Comercial de Maracaibo, Banco Venezolano de Credito, and Banco Mercantil y Agricola). The notes of the private banks were withdrawn during 1941 (monetary law of July 22, 1941).

A system of multiple exchange rates was adopted July 23, 1942, with an official rate of 3·35 per US$1, which became its parity with the International Monetary Fund in 1947. A system of multiple exchange rates was adopted in 1948, the rates ranging from 3·09 to 4·80 per US dollar, and there was a black market. The black market reached a low of 4·98/US$1 in May 1961. IMF parity was revised to 4·45 per US dollar January 18, 1964.

The various monetary laws from July 12, 1945 on continued to define the monetary unit as the gold bolívar (bolívar de oro) of 290.323 mg pure gold. It was only October 30, 1974 that the monetary unit was defined simply as "bolívar", with no reference to gold.

The bolívar was a very stable currency for a decade after 1964, but by the early 1980s it was in serious trouble. A peg to the US dollar at 14·50 bolívares did not halt the slide. Neither peg, nor crawling peg, nor managed float could keep the bolívar exchange rate under control. It went from 47 per dollar in 1990 to 177 in 1995, to 680 in 2000, and to 2090 in 2005.