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32 Centavos Fuertes = 2 Chirolas

Issuer Banco Nacional
Year 1880
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Currency Peso Fuerte (1826-1899)
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Reverse description The reverse is printed in olive-grey tones and is dominated by a large diagonal guilloche band overlying the central panel, with a central oval cartouche bearing the text EL BANCO NACIONAL surrounded by multiple circular medallions with coat-of-arms vignettes arranged symmetrically across the field. The numeral 32 appears in an oval guilloche at the top centre, and the printer's imprint of Guillermo Kraft is visible along the lower margin. A large oval cancellation stamp reading MENDOZA is applied at the upper right.
Reverse lettering 32
CENTAVOS
EL BANCO NACIONAL
Guillermo Kraft Reconquista 92
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Comments

The denomination itself tells the story. "Chirolas" was street slang for the old 16-centavo silver coin, and this note was designed to circulate as two of them — a fractional instrument aimed squarely at working-class transactions during a period when small silver had largely disappeared from everyday commerce. The Banco Nacional issued several of these odd-denomination fractionals in 1880 precisely because metallic small change was chronically absent from Buenos Aires street trade.

Guillermo Kraft was one of the most active commercial printers in Argentina during this period, though not a specialist security printer in the European sense. That the Banco Nacional used a domestic Buenos Aires house rather than a London or Paris firm reflects either expedience or the modest security expectations attached to low-denomination fractional paper.

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