"Peso" is a Spanish word, meaning "weight" and is termed as a unit of currency in the current scenario. Peso is quite a dominant currency in the South American continent as it forms part of the national currencies of most of the countries in the continent such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Uruguay and also Cuba and Philippines. Peso is used since the time as early as the colonial times when it referred to a Spanish coin, which was equivalent to 8 reales.
One of the most significant currencies amongst the above-mentioned peso dominated currencies is the Argentine peso. As the name suggests, the currency belongs to the country Argentina having ISO currency code ARS and numeric code 032. It was initially introduced as a convertible currency and was named "Nuevo peso argentine". "Centavos" act as the subunit of the Argentine peso and is often denoted with "quot;.
Overview
Argentine peso is a currency that has been making its way through hard struggle due to the frequent crises that had struck Argentina’s economy time and again. Contrastingly, peso was one of the most popular and highly traded currencies at one time. Among many economic crises that the country had been through, the toughest of them is said to be the one that struck in 1999 as the nation’s trade partner countries Mexico and Brazil were also into serious economic crisis. It led to the currency’s discontinuation of its peg to the US dollar and it was floated. Even floating the currency was not sufficient enough for the stabilization of its value and it depreciated to as low as about 80% of its value. The currency still maintains its exchange rate at around 4 pesos per dollar when before 2002 it was equivalent to the value of the dollar.
Currently, Argentine peso is trying to recover though the country still maintains a high inflation rate. The central bank has been provided the responsibility to preserve the value of the currency and protect the functions of the money. The government of Argentina also imposes currency import and export restrictions that have been changed since 2001 due to the economic crisis. The US dollars are widely accepted in Argentina with some of the provinces also issuing their own banknotes at par with peso.
Structure
Argentine peso is the legal tender in Argentina and its monetary unit is subdivided according to the decimal system, 1 peso = 100 centavos. Argentina’s reserve bank, Banco Central de la Repъblica Argentina, is responsible for the production of the currency notes and coins and the circulation of the currency in the country. The coinage in the currency is issued for smaller denominations of the currency i.e. for 7 denominations namely 5, 10, 25 and 50 centavos, 1 peso, 2 and 5 pesos. Coins from the lowest value i.e. 5 centavo up till 50-centavo bear the numerical denominations and the year in which the coins were minted on their reverse sides. The 1 peso coin has a core and a separate ring, the reverse side core depicting a 32 rayed sun and an inscription "PROVINCIAS DEL RНO DE LA PLATA" meaning "River Plate provinces" and the outer ring showing the value of the coin in words and the year when it got minted. The 2 and 5 peso coins are almost similar in appearance possessing values and the year of minting on the reverse sides. The obverse sides of all the coins have inscriptions "EN UNIУN Y LIBERTAD" meaning "in union and liberty" and "REPЪBLICA ARGENTINA" meaning "Argentine Republic" in common. Also, different coins show different engraved images on their obverse sides in addition that are mentioned below
5-centavo coin - 32 rayed national sun
10 centavos coin - national coat of arms
25 centavos coin - Buenos Aires city hall
50 centavos coin - the House of Tucumбn.
1 peso coin - replica of the first national coin depicting national coat of arms
2 pesos coin - national coat of arms
5 pesos coin - national coat of arms
Previously, 1-centavo coin was also accepted as the legal tender in the economy but now its circulation has been discontinued.
The banknotes are issued in 6 denominations that are 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 pesos. All of them are of same size and are differentiated through their color code and also the notes are made up of cotton paper. The front sides of the notes of different denominations bear different images pertaining to important people in the history of the country. The color code pattern in Argentine peso banknotes is mentioned in the following list
2 pesos note - Light blue
5 pesos note - Green
10 pesos note - Brown
20 pesos note - Red
50 pesos note - Black
100 pesos note - Violet
1 peso note was also into circulation until it was replaced by the 1 peso coin.
