Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López was a Venezuelan humanist, diplomat, poet, legislator, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture. Bello is featured on the old 2,000 Venezuelan bolívar and the 20,000 Chilean peso notes.
Portrait by Raymond Monvoisin
Image: Signature of Andrés Bello, 1804
Blue plaque commemorating Bello on 58 Grafton Way, London
Statue of Andrés Bello in the Dehesa de la Villa, Madrid (Spain).
The bolívar is the official currency of Venezuela. Named after the hero of South American independence Simón Bolívar, it was introduced following the monetary reform in 1879, before which the venezolano was circulating. Due to its decades-long reliance on silver and gold standards, and then on a peg to the United States dollar, it was considered among the most stable currencies and was internationally accepted until 1964, when the government decided to adopt a floating exchange rate instead.
Various Venezuelan coins
5-venezolano coin
Image: Moneda de 1000 Bolivares 2005
Image: 0.25 Bs