The 20-quetzal note, worth the equivalent of $2.57 in U.S. currency, will celebrate the bicentennial of Guatemala’s declaration of independence from Spain Sept. 15, 1821. The declaration, known as the Act of Independence of Central America, was actually made by a group of five countries that also included Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Guatemala’s total independence from the other four occurred later, in 1840.

A total of 25 million cotton-fiber notes will be printed by German security printer Giesecke + Devrient.

The vertically oriented face displays the portrait of Mariano Galvez, one of the signers of the declaration. Galvez was also Guatemala’s chief of state within the united Central American states from 1831 to 1838.

The back is in a traditional horizontal format. On the left of the back is a scene reminiscent of that on the United States’ current $2 Federal Reserve note. It is described by the bank as an allegory of the signing of the declaration at Guatemala City’s Palacio Nacional de la Cultura (National Palace of Culture). Above the quetzal bird, a symbol of freedom, is a Spanish inscription proclaiming the bicentennial.

The commemorative note is actually an updated redesign of the regular issue. The same basic portrait of Galvez has been on the face since 1972, while the back theme has been unchanged since Sept. 15, 1948.

Among the prominent security effects are microtext on both sides, a dynamic security thread, the dates 1821 and 2021 in color changing ink, a three-dimensional watermark, a register that forms a “20” when held to light, text in relief, a printed anti-copying pattern, and tactile markings.

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