Catalog
20 Pesos
| Issuer | Banco de Buenos Ayres |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827-1828 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in black on white paper in an early intaglio and letterpress style. A central vignette presents a beehive surrounded by floral ornaments, flanked by the denomination numerals '20' at upper left and right. Two oval portrait medallions appear in the lower corners — a uniformed military figure at left and a classical portrait at upper right — alongside a further vignette at lower right of a seated allegorical female figure. The text of the promise to pay is rendered in a cursive script across the centre, with 'VEINTE PESOS' underlined for emphasis. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | EL BANCO de BUENOS-AYRES Promete pagar al portador y á la vista la cantidad de VEINTE PESOS en Moneda Metalica Buenos Ayres Por los Directores y Accionistas Contador Presidente |
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| Comments |
The Banco de Buenos Ayres was the first bank established in what would become Argentina, founded in 1822 under Bernardino Rivadavia's administration. It operated on a fractional reserve model almost immediately strained by the costs of the Cisplatine War against Brazil, and by 1826 the bank had suspended specie payments — meaning notes of this series circulated without any effective metallic backing. They traded at steep discounts against hard currency throughout their brief life.
The bank was liquidated in 1836. Most of its paper was retired and destroyed in the winding-up process, and surviving examples from the 1827–28 period are genuinely rare.