The Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), the country’s monetary authority, will unveil a new family of guarani banknotes on October 5, 2026. The event will take place at 2:30 p.m. in the Magna Aula of the BCP Institute as part of celebrations marking the 83rd anniversary of the national currency.
The renewal will retain the current denominations — G. 2,000, G. 5,000, G. 10,000, G. 20,000, G. 50,000 and G. 100,000 — and will not remove zeros. The notes are scheduled to enter circulation in the first quarter of 2027, while current banknotes will remain valid and be withdrawn gradually as they become worn.
The project began development in 2023, following studies that also involved meetings begun in 2021 with historians, biologists and cultural representatives. The new iconography is expected to present a chronological narrative of Paraguayan history and include references to ecoregions, rivers, fauna, flora and other elements of the national heritage.
The changes will also have practical effects. Banknote lengths will differ by denomination, with a 7-millimeter variation, while their width will remain unchanged. The G. 100,000 note will be the largest, and sizes will decrease progressively down to the G. 2,000 note, a measure intended to make identification easier for people with visual impairments.
The G. 2,000 and G. 5,000 denominations will continue to be produced on polymer, and the G. 10,000 note will also begin using the material. The G. 20,000, G. 50,000 and G. 100,000 denominations will remain on a cotton substrate. The BCP is also preparing technical adjustments to ATMs to accommodate the new formats.
The series will incorporate updated security features, including threads, windows, color-shifting holograms, special inks and changes to the substrate. César Rojas Aseretto, the BCP’s treasurer, said the modernization aims to keep pace with advances in counterfeiting techniques and increase the durability of the banknotes.
The central bank also warned that images circulating on social media of purported new designs are not official. The models and technical details will be disclosed only at the October presentation; some viral images have been linked to creations made with artificial intelligence.
The new family will structurally replace a series that had not undergone a broad change in more than 60 years. The transition, however, will be gradual: the two families will circulate simultaneously for an indefinite period, and the public will not need to exchange money already in its possession immediately.