Argentina P-S2711 Tucumán Province Emergency 1 austral 1988 UNC Bonos de Cancelación de Deudas

Front text translation: Tucuman Province, Debt Cancellation Bonds, Series C Law No. 5728, To the Carrier, Date of Expiry, November 30, 1991, Economy Minister, Governor, Garden of the Republic

Back text translation:

Province of Tucumán – Debt Cancellation Bonds
Law 5728 as amended by Law 5866

Article 1. The Executive Power is authorized to issue “Debt Cancellation Bonds” for the amount of up to A 20,000,000 (twenty million australes), in the series to be determined at each opportunity, to be applied to the payment of debts of the Provincial State. The bonds may likewise be delivered for the same purpose to decentralized agencies, autonomous entities, and state enterprises and companies.

The authorized amount may be updated at the time of each issuance in accordance with the variations experienced by the Consumer Price Index of Goods and Services in San Miguel de Tucumán prepared by the Statistics Directorate of the Province of Tucumán.

Article 2. The Debt Cancellation Bonds shall be issued to bearer. They shall indicate the number of this law, the corresponding series, and shall contain the formalities provided in Articles 744 and 745 of the Commercial Code, without prejudice to those which the Executive Power may deem appropriate. They shall mature on November 30, 1991.

Article 3. The bonds shall be delivered by the General Treasury of the Province or by decentralized agencies, autonomous entities, and state enterprises and companies to creditors who accept them in payment of their claims. They may also be used to cancel debts between state agencies.

Likewise, the central administration, decentralized and autonomous entities, and state enterprises and companies shall accept the bonds in total or partial cancellation of their cash claims, whatever their origin. In all cases, the cancelling power of the bonds shall be at their nominal value.

Article 4. The bonds shall be exchangeable for legal tender at 100% (one hundred percent) of their nominal value at the Bank of the Province of Tucumán, within the terms, places, and hours determined by the Executive Power, without violating the principle of equality among bondholders.

The redemption of the bonds shall be charged to the account that, at the Bank of the Province of Tucumán, the Executive Power shall open for this purpose, in accordance with the procedure to be established by the corresponding regulation.

Article 5. The guarantees and bonds required by the laws of the Province may be constituted using the bonds whose issuance is authorized by this law.

Decree No. 307/3 (SH) – 1988

Size: 155 x 65 mm

Not a true banknote, but emergency parallel currency similar to:

• Brazil’s state “vales”

• Russia’s 1990s oblast coupons

• California IOUs in 2009

• Argentina’s later patacones and lecop in 2001

These notes are fascinating because they show:

• The breakdown of central monetary authority

• Provinces acting as mini central banks

• A preview of Argentina’s 2001 collapse mechanisms

• Beautiful late-1980s security printing mixed with desperation economics

So your item is: a pristine emergency IOU-banknote issued by the Province of Tucumán in 1988, denominated in australes, legally usable as local money to cancel debts during Argentina’s pre-hyperinflation fiscal crisis.