1 Real Plata Boliviana

Banco Comercial de Santa Fé was one of the provincial free-banking era institutions that proliferated in Argentina following the 1862 banking law, which allowed provincial governments to charter note-issuing banks without federal oversight. The denomination itself — Real Plata Boliviana — reflects a monetary environment still anchored to fractional Spanish colonial units years after independence, at a moment when Argentina had no unified national currency and Bolivian silver coinage remained the practical small-change standard across the interior provinces.

PS#1588 is among the scarcer Santa Fé provincial issues. The free-banking period ended abruptly with the 1875 provincial bank failures and subsequent federal intervention.