2 Pesos

Mendoza's provincial quasi-currency emerged directly from the 2001–2002 Argentine financial collapse, when the federal government froze bank deposits under the corralito and provinces lost access to national peso liquidity. Rather than default on wages and supplier payments, several provinces issued their own interest-bearing bonds denominated in pesos — effectively parallel currencies that circulated alongside federal notes. Mendoza's series, known as Petrobonos due to their partial backing by provincial oil revenues, was among the more credibly underpinned of these instruments.

Casa de Moneda's involvement gave the notes a physical credibility that cruder provincial emissions lacked — a deliberate political signal at a moment when public trust in any paper was badly damaged.