0,50 Austral

La Rioja issued this fractional note during the acute fiscal disarray of Argentina's mid-1980s, when several provinces resorted to quasi-currency to meet payroll and local obligations that the federal government could not adequately fund. The national Austral itself had only been introduced in June 1985 as a stabilization measure following the Austral Plan — replacing the Peso Argentino at 1,000:1 — so a provincially issued half-Austral note speaks to how quickly that optimism unraveled at the subnational level.

Casa de Moneda handled the printing, which gave the note a degree of technical legitimacy despite its emergency origins. Provincial scrip of this period was frequently redeemed at a discount, if at all.