The Guatemalan quetzal
Currency · GTQ · Q · 1 country
Guatemala's Monetary Law of November 1924 created the quetzal on the gold standard, at par with the US dollar, and it took over from the peso at 60 pesos to one. Since 1946 the Banco de Guatemala has issued it on behalf of the state. It carries the name of the national bird, whose tail feathers the Maya used as money.
The abbreviation
Q is the initial of quetzal and is written before the figure, as in Q50. The name is the bird's: the resplendent quetzal, which also appears on the flag. In Guatemalan slang a centavo is a len, plural lenes.
- ISO code
- GTQ
- ISO number
- 320
- Subunit
- centavo, 1/100
An amount, written out
Q 1,234.50
- Q 1,234.50English, SpanishGuatemala
Where the Guatemalan quetzal is the official currency
Guatemala uses the quetzal by itself, and Article 132 of its constitution reserves to the state the exclusive power to issue it.
About the Guatemalan quetzal
How a reform in the twenties created it
Before it, a small group of private banks issued the peso, and the government of Manuel Estrada Cabrera ran up huge debts to them. That government invited the Princeton economist Edwin Walter Kemmerer in 1919, and he advised a central bank with the sole right to issue notes. The plan stalled when two presidents fell. José María Orellana invited Kemmerer back in 1924.
The Monetary Law followed in November 1924. It put the quetzal on the classical gold standard and made it equal to the dollar. The rate of 60 pesos was worked out from what the dollar had cost in pesos over the previous years, and the gold backing was built from national resources rather than a foreign loan. A government agreement of 30 June 1926 founded the Central Bank of Guatemala as a private bank of issue, with the state as a shareholder, and made it the sole issuer.
Who took over the right to issue
The Great Depression strained a central bank tied to gold. Congress passed a new Monetary Law and an Organic Law of the Banco de Guatemala in the last months of 1945. On 15 June 1946 the old Central Bank signed away its rights to issue notes and mint coins, and from then on the state exercised them only through the Banco de Guatemala. The new bank's own first notes, including a 100 quetzal note for the first time, are dated 15 September 1948.
Article 132 of the constitution reserves to the state the exclusive power to issue and regulate the currency. A Monetary Board directs the system, and the Banco de Guatemala, autonomous and with its own assets, answers to it.
When the dollar parity ended
The quetzal stayed pegged to the dollar, and equal to it at home, until 1987. In 1989 the Monetary Board abolished the regulated exchange rate as part of a programme that also freed interest rates. The Free Foreign Exchange Negotiations Act took effect in May 2001.
What the coins and notes show
The first coins, in 1925, were silver from five centavos to one quetzal plus a copper-alloy centavo, and in 1926 gold pieces of 5, 10 and 20 quetzales followed. Most of the silver quetzal coins were withdrawn and melted. Coins of 5 centavos and up stayed 72% silver until 1965.
The one quetzal coin came back in 1999. Its reverse, set by a decree of 26 November 1998, shows a stylised dove, the word Paz and the date 29 December 1996, the day the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity signed the peace agreement. The 50 centavo coin shows the monja blanca, the national flower.
Every note shows its value in Mayan numerals in the top right corner of the front. The Q1 note carries Orellana and the Q50 his finance minister, Carlos O. Zachrisson, who led the reform's last stage. The Q1 went to polymer on 20 August 2007 and the Q5 on 14 November 2011. Both are back on paper as of 2024.
Common questions
Questions about the Guatemalan quetzal
Why is Guatemala's money named after a bird?
The quetzal is the national bird, and it appears on the flag. The Maya used its long tail feathers as a form of money, together with cacao beans, salt, obsidian and jade. The Monetary Law of November 1924 gave the bird's name to the unit that replaced the peso, and the plural is quetzales.
Was the quetzal once worth one US dollar?
Yes. The Monetary Law of November 1924 made the quetzal equal to the US dollar under the gold standard, and the peso was converted at 60 to one because that was roughly what a dollar had cost in pesos. The quetzal stayed pegged to the dollar, and equal to it in domestic use, until 1987. The Monetary Board abolished the regulated exchange rate in 1989.
What does the dove on the one quetzal coin mean?
It marks the peace agreement of 29 December 1996 between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity. Congress changed the coin's reverse by a decree of 26 November 1998 so that the agreement would stay in view every day. The coin shows a stylised dove, the word Paz, peace, and the date of the signing, with the value and the name of the currency. It went back into circulation in 1999.
Who issues Guatemalan banknotes?
The Banco de Guatemala, since 1946. Before that the Central Bank of Guatemala, founded in 1926, had issued them, and before the reform a group of private banks did. The constitution gives the state the exclusive power to issue currency, and the state exercises it through the bank.