Thursday, February 14, 2019

Nicaraguan Money—Cordobas

The legal tender in Nicaragua is the Córdoba.  It is named after Francisco Fernandez de Córdoba, a Spanish Conquistador, who is credited as being the founder of Nicaragua.  He explored the coast of Central America for Spain, leading various expeditions, as Spain was asserting its power in the region.  He founded two of Nicaragua’s most famous cities, Granada and Leon.  (The current capital of Managua came later)

There are coins in denominations of 10, 25, and 50  cents.  Then there is a one cordoba coin and a 5 cordoba coin.  The cordoba currently trades at between 32 and 33 cordobas per dollar.


There are bills in denominations up to 1000 cordobas.  I never had one and understand they are hard to cash if you do have one.  The 500 is the largest bill I ever used.  With so many cordobas to the dollar your dinner bill can run 500 to 600 cordobas or higher.  When one sees a bill of, say 1,100 cordobas, it gives one pause, to say the least!
The bills are a plastic material and are all a slightly different size.  Some have see-through panels and all have an anti forging thread running through.  They are different colors which makes it easy to find specific denominations in your wallet.

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