20 Pesos

The Confederación Argentina — the rival federal state based in Paraná that competed with Buenos Aires province from 1853 to 1861 — issued notes through its Ministerio de Hacienda rather than through a formal bank, reflecting the confederation's chronic inability to establish a stable banking institution. Fiscal improvisation was the rule throughout this period, and these treasury emissions were a direct consequence of Buenos Aires withholding customs revenue from the interior provinces.

PS# prefixes in the Pick catalogue denote provisional or state-chartered issues, but this one belongs to a politically fragmented moment that makes "provisional" an understatement. The confederation dissolved following Urquiza's defeat at Pavón in 1861, after which Buenos Aires absorbed the interior and most remaining Paraná-issued paper lost whatever nominal value it still carried.