Peru P148 1000000 Intis 1990 UNC—The Builder of Peruvian Medicine—Medical Faculty

This is the note that broke Peru. One million intis — a denomination that would have been unthinkable just five years earlier — issued in 1990 as the country's hyperinflationary spiral reached its peak. It is a collector's time capsule of one of Latin America's most dramatic economic collapses, printed by the world's most prestigious security printer and featuring Peru's greatest physician.

Front

• Color: dark olive-green on multicolor
• Hipólito Unanue portrait at right
• Coat of arms of Peru at center
• Signatures: Carlos Capuñay Mimbela (President); Carlos Dodero Hermoza (Director); Santiago Antúnez de Mayolo (General Manager)

Back

• Color: dark olive-green on multicolor
• Faculty of Medicine San Fernando (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos) building at left center

Other Characteristics

• Catalog numbers: P-148a; TBB B489a; Numista N#213026
• Watermark: Portrait of Hipólito Unanue
• Security strip: Embedded strip inscribed "BCRP," revealed when tilted; UV features on reverse
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 140 × 65 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Reserve Bank of Peru (Banco Central de Reserva del Perú)
• Printer: De La Rue, London (1821–date)
• Demonetized: 5 April 1992
• Currency: Inti (1985–1991)

The Doctor Who Built Peruvian Medicine

Hipólito Unanue (1755–1833) was born in Arica (then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, now Chile) and became the founding father of Peruvian medicine. He established the School of Medicine San Fernando in Lima in 1811 — the very institution depicted on the reverse of this note — which remains the oldest and most prestigious medical school in the Americas. Unanue served as Minister of Finance and Minister of War under both San Martín and Bolívar, making him one of the few figures who bridged colonial science and republican statecraft. His landmark work Observaciones sobre el clima de Lima (1806) was the first systematic scientific study of Peru's geography and public health.

One Million Reasons Peru Needed a New Currency

The Inti was introduced in 1985 to replace the Sol at a rate of 1,000 to 1 — itself a sign of trouble. By 1990, Peru's annual inflation rate hit 7,649%, one of the worst hyperinflationary episodes in world history. President Alan García's first term (1985–1990) saw price controls, nationalizations, and a refusal to pay foreign debt that triggered capital flight and economic freefall. The 1,000,000-Inti note was issued in January 1990 with a print run of 80 million — and was demonetized just two years later when the Nuevo Sol replaced the Inti at a rate of 1,000,000 to 1. In other words, this entire note was worth exactly one new cent at demonetization.

About Peru

• Origin of name: Likely derived from "Birú," the name of a local ruler or river encountered by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century; the name was gradually applied to the entire region
• Capital: Lima (city pop. ~10 million; metro pop. ~11 million) — comparable to the greater Chicago metro area
  • Origin of name of Lima: From the Quechua word Rímac ("talker" or "speaker"), the name of the river running through the city
• Population: ~33 million (UN 2024) — roughly Texas
• Area: 1,285,216 km² (496,225 mi²) — slightly smaller than Alaska; larger than France, Spain, and Germany combined
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$16,000 (IMF 2024)
• Main exports: Copper, gold, zinc, lead, silver, fishmeal, asparagus, coffee, textiles
• Borders: Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile; Pacific Ocean to the west
• Official/spoken languages: Spanish (official); Quechua and Aymara (co-official); dozens of Amazonian languages
• Ethnicities: Mestizo (~60%), Amerindian (~25%), White Peruvian (~5%), Afro-Peruvian (~4%), other (~6%)
• Memberships: United Nations (founding member, 1945); OAS (founding member, 1948); WTO (1995); Pacific Alliance (founding member, 2011); APEC (1998)
• Sovereignty: Declared independence from Spain on 28 July 1821; recognized 1824 after Battle of Ayacucho

Peru Unfiltered

• Peru is the world's second-largest producer of copper and silver and third-largest of zinc — its mineral wealth has shaped (and cursed) its politics for 500 years.
• Machu Picchu was unknown to the outside world until 1911, when American explorer Hiram Bingham III "rediscovered" it — though local farmers had never lost it.
• Lima is one of the driest capital cities on Earth — it sits in a coastal desert and receives less than 10 mm of rain per year, yet supports 11 million people.
• The Shining Path insurgency (1980–1992) killed an estimated 70,000 Peruvians — the same years this note was in circulation.
• Peru has 84 of the world's 117 life zones, making it one of the most biodiverse countries on the planet.
• Ceviche was declared part of Peru's national cultural heritage in 2004 — the country takes its food as seriously as its history.
• The Amazon River begins in Peru, not Brazil — its source is the Apurímac River in the Andes near Arequipa.

Own this note and hold a million-unit monument to economic catastrophe — and to the resilience of a nation that rebuilt itself from the rubble. The Inti is gone; Unanue's legacy endures. This is Peru's most dramatic denomination, from its most turbulent decade, printed by the world's oldest security printer. A centerpiece for any Latin American or hyperinflation collection.