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1 Peso

Issuer Provincia de Catamarca
Year 2001
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Value 1 Peso
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Obverse description The obverse carries the heading PROVINCIA DE CATAMARCA across the top, with the text RECONOCERA POR ESTE / TITULO PUBLICO AL PORTADOR / LEY 4748 in bold letterpress to the left. A central oval vignette presents a landscape view of the Cuesta del Portezuelo, rendered in fine intaglio line work in blue. The denomination UN PESO appears at the lower right, with SERIE B serial number at lower left, and signature lines for MINISTRO DE HACIENDA Y FINANZAS and GOBERNADOR at the base, all set against a guilloche underprint.
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Reverse lettering LEY N° 4748
ARTICULO 1°
ARTICULO 2°
ARTICULO 3°
ARTICULO 4°
PESOS NOVENTA MILLONES ($ 90.000.000,00) EN TITULOS PUBLICOS
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Catamarca's 2001 emergency peso was one of several provincial quasi-currencies — often called "patacones" or "lecops" depending on the issuing authority — rushed into circulation as Argentina's convertibility regime collapsed and cash became genuinely scarce at the provincial level. The federal government had effectively starved provinces of liquidity; Catamarca, one of the poorer northwestern provinces, had little choice but to issue its own scrip to pay public employees and keep local commerce moving.

These notes were officially redeemable for federal pesos but in practice traded at a discount. Redemption was chaotic and incomplete when the crisis bottomed out in 2002.