1 Real Plata Boliviana

El Banco Argentino was one of several provincial banks operating under Argentina's fragmented pre-1890 banking regime, when individual provinces still chartered their own note-issuing institutions. This Paraná-based bank denominated its notes in reales plata boliviana rather than pesos, reflecting the continued practical circulation of Bolivian silver coinage in the Litoral provinces long after Argentine independence — a commercial reality that stubbornly outlasted any official preference for domestic currency standards.

The American Bank Note Company printed this series from its New York facility at a time when virtually every significant South American issuer relied on ABNC for security printing. PS#1497 is among the lower-denomination notes of the series and survives rarely; the bank itself did not outlast the 1890 financial crisis that collapsed most Argentine provincial banks entirely.