Almost 193 million banknotes circulate in Uruguay, totaling a value of $99.4 billion —that is, 99.4 million million pesos—, according to the 2021 annual report of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU). Of those, more than half are in denominations of $100 or less. 24% of the bills in circulation are $20, 15% are $50, 14% are $100, and 6% are $200.
Also, there is a 7% of $500, 23% of $1,000, and 11% of $2,000. Despite being less than half, these three denominations account for 92.4% of the total value of the banknotes.
On the other hand, the $20 and $50 bills coexist in their old format and in new bills made with a polymer substrate. They “possess attributes of increased durability than the current ones, incorporate new elements of security and they result accessible in their reading for people with different disabilitiessince the smaller the denomination, the smaller the size of the bill”, according to the BCU.
The new polymer banknotes (BCU)
On October 3, 2020, these new banknotes were released to the public. In the case of the $50, there is also a good deal of use of older polymer banknotes, in a blue tone —like the one in the cover image of this note— put into circulation in 2017 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the BCU.
Only 7.6% of the $20 bills are polymer. On the other hand, in those of $50, most are made of synthetic material, 55.5%.
coins
The report published by the BCU shows that on the last day of last year the country’s boxes and pockets also gathered 927 million coins, adding almost $3 billion more to the total in circulation.
$1 coins were the most numerous, accounting for almost half of the total, 46%. Then its amount goes in opposite relation to its face value, with 30% of $2, 13% of $5, 9% of $10 and 1% of $50.
On the other hand, the amounts that each denomination gathers are fairly distributed. 14.5% corresponds to $1 coins, 19% to $2, 20.4% to $5 and 29.2% to $10. The new $50 coins, meanwhile, reached 16.9%.
