It's the end of the line for the five-peso bill. The note, which bears the face of General José de San Martín, has been long anticipated and even delayed – but now it's reached the final curtain.
The fiver won a brief reprieve from its original final date of January 1, as pleas from business chambers won it a stay of execution.
The Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA), however, has now confirmed that the bill will be taken out of circulation and cannot be used for any transactions after Sunday.
Nonetheless, due to the demand of business chambers the deadline extended to February 29. Therefore, the bill will still be in circulation until Sunday for any transactions in the country.
Until March 31, the Central Bank ruled, banks must change the five-peso bill or credit it into a customer's account. Several can collected and exchanged for higher denomination too.
Since August 2019, the BCRA has put more than 87 million five-peso coins into circulation to replace the note. Currently, there are already 138.3 million coins of this denomination out there.
The bill's removal comes after years in which inflation has soared and larger denomination bills – 200 pesos, 500 pesos, even 1,000 pesos – have come into use.
- TIMES/NA
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