Guatemalan_quetzal

Guatemalan quetzal

The quetzal (ISO 4217 code: GTQ) is the currency of Guatemala. It is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal and is divided into 100 cents (centavos in legal Spanish or lenes in Guatemalan traditional Spanish). The plural can be either quetzales (as it is in Spanish) or quetzals (in a slightly anglicised form). In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. Having currency named after the bird carries a strong historical value indicative of the native people of Guatemala.

History

The quetzal was introduced in 1925 during the term of President José María Orellana, whose image appears on the obverse of the one-quetzal bill. It replaced the peso. Until 1987, the quetzal was pegged to and domestically equal to the US dollar

Coins

In 1925, coins in denominations of 1, 5, 10 centavos, ¼, ½ and 1 quetzal were introduced, although the majority of the 1 quetzal coins were withdrawn from circulation and melted. ½ and 2 centavos coins were added in 1932. Until 1965, coins of 5 centavos and above were minted in 72% silver. ½ and 1 quetzal coins were reintroduced in 1998 and 1999, respectively. Coins currently in circulation are

1 centavo
5 centavos
10 centavos
25 centavos
50 centavos
1 quetzal

Banknotes

The first banknotes were issued by the Central Bank of Guatemala in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 100 quetzales, with ½ quetzal notes added in 1933. In 1946, the Bank of Guatemala took over the issuance of paper money, with its first issues being overprints on notes of the Central Bank. Except for the introduction of 50 quetzales notes in 1967, the denominations of banknotes were unchanged until ½ and 1 quetzal coins replaced notes at the end of the 1990s.

Banknotes in Circulation
Image		Value	Main Colour	Description		Remark
Obverse	Reverse	Value	Main Colour	Obverse	Reverse	Remark
		Q0.50	Brown	Tecún Umán	Tikal's Temple I	Not in circulation but still recognized
		Q1	Green	José María Orellana	Main building of the Central Bank of Guatemala	Reintroduced as a polymer banknote on August 20,2007
		Q5	Violet	Justo Rufino Barrios	Education allegory
		Q10	Red	Miguel García Granados	Picture from the Guatemalan National Assembly of 1872
		Q20	Blue	Mariano Gálvez	Signing of the declaration of Central American independence
		Q50	Orange	Carlos Zachrisson, former finance minister from 1923 to 1926	Allegory of the importance of coffee to the country
		Q100	Light brown	Francisco Marroquín, founder of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala	First university building in Antigua Guatemala

The Bank of Guatemala has briefly introduced a polymer banknote of 1 quetzal on August 20, 2007. The introduction of banknotes in the denominations of 200, 500 and 1000 quetzals is still pending congress's approval.