20 Pesos

The Tesorería General de la República Argentina was a treasury-based issuing authority, not a central bank — Argentina had none until 1872, with the Banco Nacional. These treasury notes from the early 1860s circulated during a period when Buenos Aires province and the Argentine Confederation had only recently resolved their decade-long political rupture, reunifying in 1861 after the Battle of Pavón. Federal fiscal infrastructure was still being assembled from scratch.

Printed domestically at a time when most South American governments contracted European firms, the local production reflects both the logistical difficulty of overseas contracting and the new national government's push for administrative self-sufficiency. Quality control on domestic presswork of this period was inconsistent.