Another Chinese tale: the $2 thousand bills and the “Beijing solution” improvised by the Mint

The Chinese Mint has seven monumental buildings spread across its territory that print on a scale no other money mill can dream of.

There, 19,255 kilometers away, they are preparing to produce the latest government monetary announcement: the $2,000 bill with the face of Cecilia Grierson and Ramón Carrillo.

Neatly accommodated in containers, they will navigate oceans until they reach Buenos Aires. When tellers finally hand us the new notes that smell of fresh ink this winter, much of that money will have come from a machine in China.

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It is the first time in history that the Argentine Mint turns to China to produce the complete banknote. But the demand is such that it has been a while since the two plants – the former Ciccone and the headquarters – use to manufacture; and the purchases they make from Brazil and Spain, where 60% of the currency that circulates in our country is being produced, are not enough either.

This is what the front of the 2 thousand pesos bill looks like.

The tickets in numbers

Every month, 100 million tickets are printed here and another 200 million are bought abroad. It is a single product: only those for $1000 are made. The demand for tickets is so great that China, the largest supplier on the planet, now enters this equation.

Meanwhile, the decision to make the $5,000 and $10,000 ones fell through. Nothing. They announced it as a short-term project in February, but the Central Bank did not return to discuss the issue or sign any contract.

The $2,000 will be in our pockets starting in May, when the first batch comes out, while a bigger one will come at the end of the year.

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The real, but unusual, story of the 2000-peso bill

The papers that will be used to manufacture the design, which includes two memorable doctors from Argentine history, were ready to be printed with a value of $5,000. That was in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, when the distribution of the IFE already required an epic production of banknotes.

The Mint then received the order from the Central Bank, bought the paper, the ink, the work was done and everything was ready to be put out on the streets until one day, one hour later, everything came to nothing.

The unprinted papers were kept in a warehouse from which they were rescued for this inexplicable announcement: despite the fact that the accumulated inflation of the last three years is almost 300%, they decided to make a $2000 bill.

This is what the reverse of the 2 thousand pesos bill looks like.

The reason for a decision

If the question is why, the answer is political. There is no consensus in the triangle of power made up of Cristina, the President and Sergio Massa on how much raising the denomination of the currency affects the perception of inflation.

It had already happened in 2015, when in the middle of an election year, the discussion was the same, but about bills greater than $100. So, the Central Bank had the decision to launch one for $200, an objective that was never met because the then President said no.

It was a shame for Daniel Scioli who, in the vertigo of the campaign, dreamed of winning the election and launching a $500 bill with Juan Perón’s face, just as Cristina had had Eva’s with $100.

The honorees on the new $2000 bill: Cecilia Grierson and Ramón Carrillo. (Photo: Capture)

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The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced the super-swap of the debt in pesos, a dark ghost that hovers over the future of all Argentines and whose stability depends on the goodwill of the Government and banks.

No one needs to see that financial technology or know the vertigo with which banknotes are printed to know what inflation is about. But if you look closely at that uncontrolled production of currency, it is scary.