1/2 Real Boliviano

Oxandaburu y Garbino was a commercial house operating in Gualeguaychú, Entre Ríos province, issuing this note during the brief and chaotic period when Argentine provincial private banking — largely unregulated — filled gaps left by the absence of a national monetary authority. The firm was not a bank in any formal sense, and notes like this circulated on little more than the commercial reputation of the issuing partners.

The Real Boliviano denomination is telling: Bolivian silver coinage remained widely used in the Río de la Plata region long after independence, and denominating fractional paper in those units was a practical concession to what people actually counted in.