Check the authenticity of your 1 million bolívares soberanos notes!

There is a lot of confusion right now around the 1 million soberanos notes, because in the Russian Goznak-printed notes (which are the vast majority) the security strip, threaded across the note, "shows up" five times, while the few notes they managed to print in the mint in Caracas only "show up" four times…

The Bank of Venezuela issued a video that had a  bill and showed the security strip "showing up" "threaded" five times, three times long and two times short. Look at the serial number and you will see this is not an image of a real bill, it was of some model they had designed before printing.

Per the absolutely most authoritative local source, the "Catálogo Numismático de Venezuela" (and reporting on the issue)

Russia (Goznak) — printed the bulk of circulating 1-million notes. These are the Design A, Type A variety with the thin 5-window plain silver security thread featuring demetalized "BCV." This is what almost everyone actually handles. Goznak is also the sole printer of the 500,000 note and printed most of the 10,000/20,000/50,000 second issue.

Venezuela (Casa de la Moneda de Venezuela, Maracay) — printed the Design A, Type B variety with the wider 4-window holographic security thread (BCV repeated 4 times), on Fedrigoni-supplied paper substrate. The BCV's originally released promotional image showed an A-series Venezuelan-printed note, but per Tom Maneiro's commentary on BanknoteNews, the A-prefix Venezuelan-printed version "has yet to circulate due to unknown reasons" — so the Venezuelan-printed Type B is much scarcer in collectors' hands.

So if you're looking at a typical circulated 1-million bolívar note, it's almost certainly  Russian (printed by Goznak). The Venezuelan-printed variety exists but is uncommon.

Note that every Venezuelan banknote carries the "CASA DE LA MONEDA - VENEZUELA" imprint regardless of where it was actually printed — that's been standard since 2007 and isn't a reliable indicator of printer. The reliable indicators are:

The most authoritative English-language authority on banknotes shows a REAL bill with a REAL serial number and the strip shows up 5 times threaded.

Check the quality of the paper, printing and watermark, all of which are (perhaps surprisingly) high quality for a banknote from such a troubles, inflationary state. Four or five appearances doesn't matter so much... but those other factors will signal any counterfeit notes.

In case of any doubt, World Money Store is at your service to provide advice! We stand behind all banknotes that we sell.