100 Pesos

Buenos Aires in 1820 was in the thick of near-total institutional collapse — the Directorate had just fallen, the province was fighting off federalist militias, and the national treasury was functionally nonexistent. The Ministerio de Hacienda, operating without a functioning central bank or formal note-issuing framework, turned to the Aduana as the one revenue-generating body with enough credibility to back paper obligations. These customs-backed notes were fiscal instruments of desperation, not monetary policy.

The sole security feature was an official seal — no complex printing, no serial numbering system of consequence. Survival rate is extremely low, and most known examples show heavy handling consistent with commercial use at the port.