5 Pesos

The Banco y Casa de Moneda de la Provincia de Buenos Ayres occupied an unusual dual role — simultaneously a bank of issue and a mint — a combination that reflected the chronic monetary fragmentation of Argentina in the decades following independence. By 1867, Buenos Aires province was operating its own financial infrastructure largely in defiance of, or at least in parallel to, any pretense of national monetary unity.

PS472 falls within a period when the province's paper issues were chronically over-issued relative to specie backing. Convertibility had already collapsed more than once, and public confidence in provincial paper ran low enough that discounting against hard currency was routine.