Argentine austral


The austral was the currency of Argentina between June 15, 1985 and December 31, 1991. It was subdivided into 100 centavos. The symbol was an uppercase A with an extra horizontal line, code point. This symbol appeared on all coins issued in this currency, to distinguish them from earlier currencies. The ISO 4217 code is ARA.

History

Finance Minister Juan Vital Sourrouille devised the Austral plan. The austral replaced the peso argentino at a rate of 1 austral = 1000 pesos argentinos.
In 1992, the austral was itself replaced by the peso convertible at a rate of 1 peso convertible = 10,000 australes.

Coins

In 1985, coins were introduced for, 1, 5, 10 and 50 centavos. The centavo was only issued in 1985, whilst production of the 1 centavo ceased in 1987, 5 centavo ceased in 1988, and that of the other centavo coins ended in 1989. In 1989, 1, 5 and 10 austral coins were issued, followed in 1990 and 1991 by 100, 500 and 1,000 austral denominations.

Centavo

Austral

Banknotes

In 1985, provisional issues were made consisting of 1000, 5000 and 10,000 peso argentino notes over stamped with the values 1, 5 and 10 australes.
ValueCommentsPortraitEntered circulationWithdrawnImage
1ProvisionalJosé de San Martín31 Oct 198530 Nov 1987
5ProvisionalJuan Bautista Alberdi31 Oct 198530 Nov 1987
10ProvisionalManuel Belgrano31 Oct 198530 Nov 1987

Between 1985 and 1991, the following notes were issued by the Banco Central:
ValueCommentsPortraitEntered circulationWithdrawnImage
1DefinitiveBernardino Rivadavia31 Oct 198531 Oct 1991
5DefinitiveJusto José de Urquiza28 Feb 198631 Oct 1991
10DefinitiveSantiago Derqui30 Dec 198531 Oct 1991
50DefinitiveBartolomé Mitre23 Jun 198631 Dec 1991
100DefinitiveDomingo F. Sarmiento25 Nov 19851 Jun 1992
500DefinitiveNicolás Avellaneda2 May 19881 Jun 1992
1,000DefinitiveJulio A. Roca30 Sep 19881 Jun 1992
5,000DefinitiveJuárez Celman26 May 19891 Oct 1992
10,000ProvisionalJosé de San Martín31 Jul 198931 Aug 1991
10,000DefinitiveCarlos Pellegrini25 Aug 19891 Oct 1992
50,000ProvisionalJosé de San Martín2 Jun 198931 Aug 1991
50,000DefinitiveLuis Sáenz Peña8 Nov 19892 Jan 1993
100,000DefinitiveJosé E. Uriburu21 May 19902 Jan 1993
500,000ProvisionalJosé de San Martín2 Jul 199031 Oct 1991
500,000DefinitiveManuel Quintana1 Nov 19902 Jan 1993

All banknotes except the provisional types show on the back an image of Liberty with a torch and shield. The provisional banknotes were produced from modified peso ley plates. On the obverses, the word PESOS were erased, whilst the reverse designs substituted the picture with the denomination written in words without spaces in several rows. The denomination was shown on both faces in the form A 10 MIL, A 50 MIL and A 500 MIL.