200 Pesos Fuertes

Banco Nacional was Argentina's first true national bank, established in 1872 under President Sarmiento as a federally chartered institution meant to consolidate the country's chronically fractured banking system. It lasted barely a decade — the bank collapsed in 1876 amid a severe financial crisis triggered by falling export revenues and unsustainable government debt, which means this 1873 note was circulating almost precisely as the institution was sliding toward insolvency.

The American Bank Note Company printed the entire Banco Nacional series from its New York shops. High-denomination issues like this one saw limited street circulation under normal conditions; by the mid-1870s, most were effectively stranded on the books of creditors who had little hope of redemption.