40 Centavos Fuertes

The Banco Nacional was one of several private banks operating in Argentina under the 1872 banking law, each with the right to issue their own notes — a situation that created a fragmented, often chaotic currency supply before the Banco Nacional de la República Argentina consolidated the system in 1891. The 40 centavos denomination is an odd one, practically speaking: small-value fractional notes of this type typically emerged where coin shortages made change difficult, and Argentina's chronic shortage of specie in the early 1870s made them a commercial necessity rather than a curiosity.

The American Bank Note Company printed the full Banco Nacional series from its New York facilities. PS#646 sits in one of the thinner survival categories for the issue — fractional notes were used hard and discarded.