The Banco Central de Venezuela have begun to recall the current 2008 series of banknotes and replace them with six new, higher-value denominations in an effort to stabilize the economy and enable the public to conduct everyday purchases.

As inflation has essentially rendered worthless the denominations of the Fuerte (“strong”) Bolivar—originally introduced in 2008, also as a means of controlling Venezuela’s then-runaway inflation—the series, which featured vertical obverse designs and included denominations from 2 to 100 Fuerte Bolivares, was introduced at a ratio of 1,000 old Bolivares to one new Fuerte Bolivar. At the time of its introduction, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Fuerte Bolivar was set at 2.15 per U.S. dollar. The rate was later officially readjusted four times, with the last rate being set at 6.30 per US$1 before the black market determined that the Fuerte Bolivar was more realistically valued at 10 times the official rate.

As of December 14, the Banco Central began to recall all 100 Bolivar banknotes, which are slated to be replaced with coins of the same value. The bank will also introduce six new denominations, from 500 to 20,000 Bolivares. The 2016-series notes reintroduce the same designs and personalities featured on the 2008 banknote series, though with new colors and varying security features. It is believed that additional coins, with values of 10 and 50 Bolivares, will be issued shortly, also replacing banknotes of the same value. Officially, the 20,000 Fuerte Bolivar note will have an exchange rate of US$26, but it is expected that the note will trade at the black-market rate, meaning it will be regarded to have a real worth of about $4.40.

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