50 Pesos

The Provincia de Buenos Ayres operated its own note-issuing apparatus entirely separately from the Argentine Confederation for much of the nineteenth century — Buenos Aires had refused to join the Confederation until 1859 and retained its provincial bank well after political unification. By 1869, the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires was among the most established issuing institutions on the continent, and commissioning ABNC in New York was a deliberate signal of institutional credibility at a time when provincial paper was still viewed with suspicion in rural districts.

PS#489 sits in a denomination range that would have seen limited everyday handling — fifty pesos was a substantial sum — so surviving examples frequently show less wear than lower values in the same series.