2 Reales

Corrientes was the only Argentine province to issue its own independent paper currency after the fall of Rosas — and to keep doing so for decades, in open defiance of the centralizing financial architecture Buenos Aires was trying to impose. This 2 Reales note from 1861 predates the national currency unification by years, issued by a provincial institution that fused mint and banking functions under a single roof, an unusual arrangement even by contemporary Latin American standards.

Provincial notes from Corrientes of this period were chronically overissued relative to any metallic reserve, and the real/peso exchange fluctuated badly. Survival rate for low-denomination paper from this issuer is poor — the 2 Reales circulated hard and was not saved.