Nicaraguans hit by currency surprise

According to Time.com last week Nicaraguans were taken by surprise by the Central Bank of Nicaragua's issuing new currency notes (for those keeping track at home the Nicaraguan currency is the Cordoba). Time interviewed a few people on the street who all were wary of the new Cordoba notes, including business-owners who were trying to pass along the new Cordobas to unsuspecting customers as quickly as possible.

It's odd though that Nicaraguans would be caught by surprise since with just a little searching on the Internet I found this post from the site Banknotenews.com ("Breaking news about international paper money" according to its masthead) that announced the new Cordobas back in January of 2008. I'll have to assume then that the Nicaraguan government just didn't do a great public outreach/PR campaign about the new money and that Banknotenews is really on top of the ball for all things currency-related.

Perhaps part of the problem too is the Nicaraguan government's odd decision to issue only about half of the Cordoba denominations in the new format - printed on an odd, plastic-feeling polymer, which seems to be getting uniformly negative reviews from the citizens, while still printing the other half on paper. Whatever the reason - again according to Time.com - the new bills are sparking a mini-economic boom in Nicaragua as people, unsure about the new currency and wary about past government economic policies, are trying to spend the new Cordobas as fast as they get them.