Providencia – Cultural Landscape and Numismatic Heritage

Instructor: Hussein Larreal

Providencia is an island that served as a leprosarium for western Venezuela between 1831 and 1985. However, more than clinical history, it’s a cultural landscape that meant the modification of a natural environment by a society forcibly installed on its territory, but that developed there its life and local culture, leaving a legacy reflected in buildings, stories and assets; that is the case of coins and banknotes intended solely for the use of leprosy patients.