1 Peso

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.