Bolivia is a landlocked country located in western-central South America with a varied terrain spanning Andes Mountains, the Atacama Desert and Amazon Basin rainforest. Bolivia is the 5th largest country in South America and the 27th largest in the world.

Before Spanish colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was part of the Inca Empire, while the northern and eastern lowlands were inhabited by independent tribes. The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire began in 1524, and was mostly completed by 1533. The struggle for independence started in the city of Sucre on 25 May 1809 and after a long period of struggle it signed a peace treaty in 1842, putting a final end to the war.

The boliviano is the currency of Bolivia. It is divided into 100 cents or centavos. The first boliviano was introduced in 1864. Bolivia faced hyperinflation in the 1980s. The inflation jumped to triple digits in 1982 and quadruple figures in 1984. During the inflation, the largest Peso note of 1 million was issued!

The note depicted beside is such an example of a 1 million pesos banknote issued in 1985. The obverse depicts Mercury - God of trade, in the left top corner.

Image Courtesy: Numismatica Cameroni