Argentina P325b 10 Australes 1986-1989 AU—Series B—Obscure President—R0303

The 10 Australes features one of Argentina's most obscure presidents — a man who held office for less than two years before resigning into historical near-oblivion — on a note that itself barely lasted six years before the Austral collapsed into hyperinflationary history.

Front

• Colors: blue-grey dominant engraving; white background; golden-tan/ochre feather and shell guilloche rosette at right; dark purple/mauve numeral "10" overlay; orange rosette motif upper left
• Portrait of Santiago Derqui at center — president of Argentina (1860–1861), successor to Urquiza in the Confederation
• Large stylized "10" numeral to right with purple/mauve overlay and golden-tan guilloche rosette
• Latent image BCRA in security panel at left
• Series B (suffix B on serial number)
• Signatures: Elías Salama (ES), General Manager; José Luis Machinea (JLM), President
• Inscriptions: BANCO CENTRAL DE LA REPUBLICA ARGENTINA / Diez Australes / Santiago Derqui

Back

• Colors: blue/steel-blue dominant engraving; pink/lavender underprint; white background; multicolor green, red, and orange geometric diamond strip at lower right
• Allegorical figure of Liberty (Progreso) seated at left-center, holding torch aloft and Argentine shield; coat of arms at her feet
• Decorative scrollwork and laurel framing the central vignette
• Large numeral "10" at center-right
• Inscriptions: REPUBLICA ARGENTINA / Diez Australes / CASA DE MONEDA

Other Characteristics

• Varieties:
  • a. Series A, ND (1986–1987), sig HAA/JJAC
  • ar. Replacement (R1): Prefix R, suffix A, ND (1986–1987), sig HAA/JJAC
  • b. Series A/B/C, ND (1987–1989), sig ES/JLM — this note
  • br. Replacement (R2): Prefix R, suffix A, ND (1987–1989), sig ES/JLM
• Catalog numbers: P-325b; Bottero# 2821–2825; Colantonio# 699; Numista N#203806
• Watermark: Multiple sunbursts
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 155 × 65 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (Banco Central de la República Argentina)
• Printer: Casa de Moneda, Argentina
• Demonetized: 31 December 1991
• Signatures: Elías Salama (ES), General Manager; José Luis Machinea (JLM), President
• Currency: Austral (1985–1991)
• Official language(s): Spanish

About Argentina

• Origin of name: From Latin argentum (silver), referencing the silver-rich Río de la Plata basin that lured Spanish conquistadors
• Capital: Buenos Aires (city pop. ~3.1 million; metro pop. ~15.5 million, UN 2023) — comparable to the greater Chicago metro
  • Origin of name: Spanish for "good airs" or "fair winds," from the full colonial name Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires
• Population: ~46 million (UN 2023) — comparable to California and Texas combined
• Area: 2,780,400 km² (1,073,500 mi²) — comparable to India, or roughly the size of the contiguous US west of the Mississippi
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$25,000 (IMF 2024)
• Main exports: Soybeans and soy products, corn, wheat, beef, lithium, crude oil
• Borders: Chile (west), Bolivia and Paraguay (north), Brazil and Uruguay (northeast); Atlantic Ocean (east)
• Official/spoken language: Spanish
• Ethnicities: European Argentines (~97%, predominantly Italian and Spanish descent); Indigenous peoples (~3%)
• Memberships: UN (founding member, 1945); OAS (founding member, 1948); Mercosur (founding member, 1991); G20 (1999); WTO (1995)
• Sovereignty:
  • Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776–1810) — Spanish colonial administration
  • May Revolution (1810) — beginning of independence movement
  • Declaration of Independence (1816)
  • Federal Republic established (1861–date) — this note issued during this period

Argentina Unfiltered

• Argentina has defaulted on its sovereign debt nine times — more than almost any other country in history; the Austral itself was introduced after the Peso Argentino collapsed under 3,000% inflation
• The country once had five presidents in ten days (December 2001–January 2002) during its worst economic crisis
• Argentina is the world's largest producer of yerba mate and consumes more of it per capita than any other nation
• Buenos Aires has more psychoanalysts per capita than any city on Earth — therapy is so embedded in culture it's called el psicoanálisis argentino
• The country has produced five Nobel Prize winners, including two in medicine and one in peace
• Argentina's Patagonia region contains some of the world's largest untapped freshwater reserves and lithium deposits — resources that will define the 21st century

A Currency Born from Chaos

By 1985, Argentina's Peso Argentino had become nearly worthless. Inflation was running at over 1,000% annually. The government's answer was the Austral — introduced on June 14, 1985, at a rate of 1,000 Pesos Argentinos to 1 Austral. It was a bold stroke of monetary surgery, accompanied by the Plan Austral — a shock stabilization program that briefly worked. Inflation fell from 1,129% in 1985 to 82% in 1986. But the underlying fiscal problems were never solved, and by 1989 inflation had returned with a vengeance, eventually reaching 3,079% in 1989 — one of the worst hyperinflationary episodes in world history.

Santiago Derqui — The President History Forgot

Santiago Derqui (1809–1867) served as president of Argentina from 1860 to 1861 — one of the shortest and most turbulent presidencies in the country's history. A lawyer and politician from Córdoba, he succeeded Urquiza as head of the Argentine Confederation just as Buenos Aires province was finally being reintegrated into the national fold. His presidency was immediately consumed by the conflict between the Confederation and Buenos Aires, culminating in the Battle of Pavón (September 1861), where Confederation forces were defeated. Derqui resigned shortly after and went into exile in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he died in obscurity. He is one of the least-remembered figures in Argentine political history — which makes his appearance on a banknote all the more striking.

Liberty, Torch, and Shield

The reverse carries the same allegorical Liberty figure that runs through the entire Austral series — robed, seated, torch raised, Argentine shield at her side. By the time this Series B note was issued in 1987–1989, the Austral was already under severe pressure. The Plan Austral had bought time but not salvation. Liberty's torch on the reverse reads less like a triumph and more like a stubborn refusal to give up — which, in the context of Argentine monetary history, is itself a kind of heroism.

Own this Series B 10 Australes in UNC condition — signed by Salama and Machinea, the last pair of Austral-era officials, on a note featuring one of Argentina's most forgotten presidents and the republic's most enduring allegorical image.