One US dollar, four prices: what a G$20 note was worth in 1965 — and what it buys now
A G$20 note was worth US$11.67 when Guyana’s first banknotes were issued in November 1965. Today, that same G$20 note is worth less than ten US cents.
That is the stark long view in a new educational video from Invest Guyana News, “One US Dollar, Four Prices”, which uses aerial footage of Georgetown to walk viewers through how the Guyana dollar has moved over 60 years — and why, even today, one US dollar does not have a single price in Guyana.
As of mid-2026, the video says, a US dollar had four different prices:
- G$208.50 — the official Bank of Guyana rate
- G$215.68 — the average bank cambio selling rate
- G$223.73 — the Bank of Guyana’s market mid-rate, for foreign notes only
- G$230.51 — the average non-bank cambio selling rate
The bank cambios handle almost all of the business — 99.4 percent of trading volume, against 0.6 percent for non-bank cambios — so the weighted average across the market works out to about G$215, roughly 3 percent above the official rate.
The video’s question to viewers is a practical one: which rate applies to your amount? The answer depends on where, and how, you change your money — and on whether the price you are paying is set in Guyana dollars or US dollars.
How the dollar got here
The video traces the slide in stages. In January 1987, the official rate was G$10 to US$1, with a free-market window at G$18. A devaluation in March 1989 took the official rate to G$33. Cambios opened in March 1990, with a parallel market running at G$55 to G$60. The rates were unified in 1991 at G$101.75.
From there, the dollar drifted to where it sits today: the Bank of Guyana’s official mid-rate held at G$208.50 per US dollar at the end of June 2026, and the Bank says it expects the official rate to remain broadly stable. Market rates on November 6 had the Bank of Guyana buying US dollars at G$207.98 and selling at G$210.45.
The gap between the official rate and the street rate matters more when US dollars are hard to come by. In September 2026, the commercial banks reported just over US$200 million in foreign-currency requests still unfilled, part of it carried forward from earlier months.
The G$20 test
The video’s simplest measure is the smallest banknote. When the Bank of Guyana began issuing local notes on 15 November 1965 — in denominations of G$1, G$5, G$10 and G$20 — a G$20 note was worth US$11.67. At the mid-2026 official rate, that same note is worth about US$0.096.
The figures come from public sources, including the Bank of Guyana’s Half Year Report 2026 and Budget Speeches, and the video notes they are averages, not promises.
For Guyanese at home and abroad, the point is less about the history than the everyday question the video ends on: when you are paying, sending or receiving money, which rate is actually being applied to your amount — and is the price in Guyana dollars, or US dollars?
Based on Invest Guyana News’ educational video “One US Dollar, Four Prices”, posted 4 November 2026. Exchange-rate figures are as reported in the video and the Bank of Guyana’s Half Year Report 2026.
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