1/2 Real Plata Boliviana

Banco de Mendoza was one of several provincial Argentine banks that issued its own currency during the brief era of free banking that preceded the creation of a national monetary authority. The ½ Real Plata Boliviana is a fractional denomination — an oddity in itself, since fractional paper was rarely practical and typically signals a severe shortage of small coin in local circulation, which was a persistent problem across the Cuyo region in the early 1870s.

The "Plata Boliviana" designation anchors the note's value to Bolivian silver rather than to any Argentine standard — a telling detail about which metallic currency actually moved through Mendoza's commerce at the time.