Argentina Banknotes 1 Austral banknote 1989 Bernardino Rivadavia
Central Bank of Argentina - Banco Central de la República Argentina
Obverse: Portrait of Bernardino Rivadavia (1780 – 1845) was the first president of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to July 7, 1827.
Signatures: E. Salama (Gerente General) & José Luis Machinea (Presidente).
Reverse: Allegory of Progress - "Progress's Effigy" ("Efigie del Progreso"). Coat of arms of Argentina at upper right.
Watermark: repeated eight-angled sunbursts.
Printer: Casa de Moneda de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Argentina banknotes - Argentina paper money
1985-1991
The Argentine austral was the currency of Argentina between June 15, 1985 and December 31, 1991. It was subdivided into 100 centavos. Finance Minister Juan Vital Sourrouille devised the Austral Plan. The austral replaced the peso argentino at a rate of 1 austral = 1000 pesos argentinos. It was itself replaced by the peso at a rate of 1 peso = 10,000 australes.
1 Austral 5 Australes 10 Australes 50 Australes 100 Australes
500 Australes 1000 Australes 5000 Australes 10000 Australes
50000 Australes 100000 Australes 500000 Australes
Bernardino Rivadavia
Bernardino Rivadavia (Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia y Rivadavia, born May 20, 1780, Buenos Aires — died Sept. 2, 1845, Cádiz, Spain), first president of the Argentine republic. Although one of his country’s ablest leaders, he was unable to unite the warring provinces or to control the provincial caudillos (bosses).
Active in resistance to British invasion in 1806, he also supported the 1810 movement for independence from Spain, becoming secretary to the revolutionary junta. In 1811 he dominated the revolutionary triumvirate — organizing the militia, disbanding the Spanish courts, freeing the press from censorship, and ending the slave trade. In 1814 he was sent to Europe to secure British aid for the United Provinces of La Plata, the original provinces of Argentina.
Returning to Buenos Aires after six years in Europe, Rivadavia, in 1821, was appointed a minister in the government of Martín Rodríguez and, in 1826, was elected president of the United Provinces. In Europe he had met and been strongly influenced by Jeremy Bentham and the French utopians Henri de Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. Adopting some of their ideas, Rivadavia extended the franchise to all males at age 20, organized a Parliament and a system of courts, and supported legislation that guaranteed freedom of the press and secured individual and property rights. He earned the lasting enmity of the church by abolishing ecclesiastical courts and eliminating the compulsory tithe. His efforts to encourage immigration were unsuccessful, and his program of land reform eventually backfired, serving the interests of the landed oligarchy instead of the peasants. His cultural initiatives were perhaps his most lasting achievements: he founded the University of Buenos Aires, supported the establishment of museums, and enlarged the national library.
Despite all these achievements, Rivadavia’s administration was often in desperate straits. Involved in war with Brazil over the possession of the territory that later became independent Uruguay, Rivadavia was forced to continue the fruitless conflict because the Argentine people refused to accept the treaty that gave Brazil hegemony in that area. He was also constantly embroiled with the powerful provincial caudillos, from whom he was unable to win acceptance for his centralist constitution of 1826. Resigning his office in 1827, he left for exile in Europe, returning to Buenos Aires in 1834 to face charges brought by his political enemies. Sentenced to immediate exile, he went first to Brazil and then to Spain. His remains were repatriated in 1857, and in 1880 his birthday was decreed a national holiday.