The Venezuelan bolívar
Currency · VES · 1 country
The Central Bank of Venezuela issues the bolívar, named after Simón Bolívar and created by the monetary law of 1879. Since 2008 it has been redenominated three times, most recently on 1 October 2021, when a million sovereign bolívares became one digital bolívar. Despite the name, the digital bolívar circulates as ordinary printed notes and struck coins.
No sign of its own
The bolívar has no single sign in the character set. Amounts are written with Bs., the first and last letters of bolívares. Each redenomination added a letter, giving Bs.F, Bs.S and Bs.D, but the central bank has used plain Bs. in its examples of prices in digital bolívares.
- ISO code
- VES
- ISO number
- 928
- Subunit
- céntimo, 1/100
- ISO name
- Bolívar Soberano
An amount, written out
VES 1,234.50
- VES 1,234.50English
- Bs.S 1.234,50SpanishVenezuela
Where the Venezuelan bolívar is the official currency
Venezuela keeps the bolívar as its only legal tender, and older sovereign notes are still accepted at a million to one beside the digital ones.
Legal tender alongside it
About the Venezuelan bolívar
How the bolívar began on silver
The monetary law of 1879 brought in the bolívar in place of the short-lived venezolano, at five bolívares to one. It was defined as 4.5 grams of fine silver on the principles of the Latin Monetary Union, and after a law of 1887 made the gold bolívar unlimited legal tender, the gold standard was fully in force by 1910. Venezuela left gold in 1930 and fixed the bolívar to the US dollar in 1934.
Many Venezuelans call 18 February 1983, the day high devaluation set in, Viernes Negro, Black Friday. Exchange controls followed on 5 February 2003, with the rate fixed at 1,600 bolívares to the dollar.
What each redenomination took away
The government announced on 7 March 2007 that the bolívar would lose three zeros. On 1 January 2008 the hard bolívar, bolívar fuerte, replaced it at 1,000 to one. The name looked back to the peso fuerte, an old coin worth ten Spanish reales. The currency went through hyperinflation from 2016 to 2019 and again in 2020, 38 months in all.
The sovereign bolívar, bolívar soberano, was announced on 22 March 2018 at 1,000 to one for June. It slipped. When it finally came, on 20 August 2018, the rate had become 100,000 to one, and the government declared a bank holiday so that the banks could adjust to the new currency, which at first was to run alongside the hard bolívar during a transition period. Dual prices had been compulsory since 1 August. The third step, dubbed the nueva expresión monetaria, came on 1 October 2021 at 1,000,000 to one and brought the zeros removed since 2008 to fourteen.
Which code the bolívar carries now
ISO 4217 keeps two entries for Venezuela. Both are named Bolívar Soberano: VES, numeric 928, and VED, numeric 926. Wikipedia assigns VES to the sovereign bolívar of 2018 and VED to the digital bolívar of 2021. The sovereign notes still count at a million to one digital bolívar, so a 500,000-bolívar soberano note is worth 50 céntimos of the new unit. Retailers had to show both prices from 1 October 2021 until 27 April 2022.
Why prices appear in dollars
By 2024 prices were more often posted as REF, short for referencia, meaning a price in US dollars that customers settle in bolívares at the rate of the day. The Central Bank of Venezuela publishes that rate as the weighted average of the day's trades at the banks' exchange desks. Legal tender is still the bolívar alone.
What the digital notes and coins look like
The digital bolívar is paper and metal. Coins of 25 and 50 céntimos and 1 bolívar came out on 1 October 2021, and notes of 5 to 100 bolívares were introduced the same year, though the central bank put the 20 into circulation only in March 2022 and the 50 and 100 in May 2022. On 16 August 2024 notes of 200 and 500 followed, carrying several portraits of Simón Bolívar and, on the reverses, the naval battle of Lake Maracaibo and the Rafael Urdaneta Bridge. The last high-value sovereign notes of 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 and 200,000 lost legal tender status on 25 September 2024.
Common questions
Questions about the Venezuelan bolívar
Why does Venezuela have both VES and VED?
The ISO 4217 list carries both codes for Venezuela under the name Bolívar Soberano, VES with the number 928 and VED with 926. Wikipedia gives VES to the sovereign bolívar introduced on 20 August 2018 and VED to the digital bolívar that followed on 1 October 2021 at a million to one. Sovereign notes are still accepted at that ratio alongside the digital ones.
Is the digital bolívar a cryptocurrency?
No. It is issued as ordinary banknotes and coins, struck and printed like any earlier bolívar, with coins of 25 and 50 céntimos and 1 bolívar and notes from 5 bolívares up. The name comes from the 2021 monetary reform that introduced it. The petro, a separate cryptocurrency the government had linked to the sovereign bolívar, was shut down on 15 January 2024.
How many zeros has the bolívar lost?
Fourteen, in three steps. Three zeros went on 1 January 2008, when the hard bolívar replaced the original bolívar at 1,000 to one. Five more went on 20 August 2018 with the sovereign bolívar, at 100,000 hard bolívares to one; the government had first planned a ratio of 1,000 to one for June that year and postponed the launch. Six went on 1 October 2021, when a million sovereign bolívares became one digital bolívar. After the 2018 and 2021 steps, shops had to post prices in both units for a time.
What does REF mean on Venezuelan price tags?
REF stands for referencia and marks a price given in US dollars. The customer can pay it in bolívares at the exchange rate of the day, as published by the Central Bank of Venezuela. The bolívar is still the only legal tender.