Uruguay P102 POLYMER 50 Pesos Uruguayos 2020 or 2021 UNC—Varela

Uruguay's 50 Pesos Uruguayos polymer note is a quiet tribute to the man who built the country's public school system from scratch — José Pedro Varela — printed on durable polymer by one of the world's premier security printers.

Front

• Colors: deep olive-green engraving; pale green and cream background; gold and blue accents
• Portrait of José Pedro Varela to the right
• Coat of arms of Uruguay to the left, above the watermark window
• Denomination: CINCUENTA PESOS URUGUAYOS
• Issuer text: BANCO CENTRAL DEL URUGUAY / MONEDA NACIONAL
• Signatures:
  • Alberto Graña — Gov. (Series A, 2020)
  • Alfredo Allo Arrieta — General Secretary (both series)
  • Diego Labat — Gov. (Series B, 2021)

Back

• Colors: olive-green and cream background; gold and teal accents
• Monument to José Pedro Varela
• Denomination repeated: CINCUENTA PESOS URUGUAYOS
• Issuer text: BANCO CENTRAL DEL URUGUAY / MONEDA NACIONAL

Other Characteristics

• Varieties: Your note will be either Series A or Series B — both are UNC and identical in design; only the year and signatures differ.
  • P-102a — 2020, Signatures: Graña & Allo Arrieta (Series A, issued 3 October 2020)
  • P-102b — 2021, Signatures: Labat & Allo Arrieta (Series B, issued October 2022)
• Catalog numbers: P-102a / P-102b; TBB B561a / B561b; Numista N#238829
• Watermark: Portrait of José Pedro Varela in see-through window
• Composition: Polymer
• Size: 145 × 67 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Bank of Uruguay (Banco Central del Uruguay)
• Printer: Oberthur Fiduciaire (François-Charles Oberthur Fiduciaire; FCO), France (1984–date)
• Demonetized: No — still legal tender
• Currency: Peso uruguayo (1993–date)
• Official language: Spanish

About Uruguay

• Origin of name: From the Guaraní language — most likely meaning "river of the painted birds" (uruguá = shellfish/snail; í = water/river), referring to the Uruguay River
• Capital: Montevideo — city pop. ~1.4 million; metro pop. ~1.8 million
  • Origin of name: Disputed — possibly from Portuguese Monte vide eu ("I see a mountain") or from a Spanish cartographic notation Monte VI De E a O
• Population: ~3.4 million (UN 2023) — comparable to Connecticut or Iowa
• Area: 176,215 km² (68,037 mi²) — comparable to Washington state or Syria
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$27,000 (IMF 2023) — one of the highest in Latin America
• Main exports: Beef, soybeans, cellulose/pulp, dairy, rice, wool
• Borders: Argentina (west); Brazil (north and east); Atlantic Ocean (south)
• Official/spoken language: Spanish (~100%)
• Ethnicities: White/European (~87%); Afro-Uruguayan (~8%); Mestizo (~4%); Indigenous (~1%)
• Memberships: UN (founding member, 1945); Mercosur (founding member, 1991); OAS (founding member, 1948); WTO (1995);
• Sovereignty:
  • Pre-colonial: Charrúa and Guaraní peoples
  • Spanish colonization (1624–1811)
  • Banda Oriental — contested between Spain, Portugal, and later Argentina and Brazil
  • Independence declared 1825; recognized 1828 — one of the last South American nations to gain independence
  • Oriental Republic of Uruguay (1828–date)

Uruguay Unfiltered

• Uruguay was the first country in the world to fully legalize recreational cannabis at the national level (2013)
• It has no natural lakes — all major lakes are man-made reservoirs
• Uruguay has more cattle than people — roughly 4 cows per person
• It was the first Latin American country to legalize same-sex marriage (2013) and abortion (2012)
• The country has no army bases abroad and has contributed heavily to UN peacekeeping missions relative to its size
• José Pedro Varela, depicted on this note, transformed Uruguay's education system in the 1870s — today Uruguay has one of the highest literacy rates in Latin America (~99%)
• Uruguay hosted and won the first FIFA World Cup in 1930

The Schoolmaster on the Banknote

José Pedro Varela died at just 34 years old, but in his short life he rewrote the rules of Uruguayan society. Inspired by travels to the United States — where he met Horace Mann, the father of American public education — Varela returned home and pushed through the 1877 Law of Common Education, making schooling free, secular, and compulsory. Uruguay's near-universal literacy today is his legacy. Carrying this note is carrying a piece of that story.

Polymer: Built to Last

Printed on polymer substrate by Oberthur Fiduciaire of France, this note features a see-through window watermark — a hallmark of modern security printing. Polymer notes last up to 4× longer than paper equivalents, resist moisture, and are harder to counterfeit. In UNC condition, this example is as crisp as the day it left the press.

Own this note and own a piece of Uruguay's proudest tradition — the belief that education is the foundation of a free society.