4 Soles – La Rioja

Between 1826 and 1828, the Argentine province of La Rioja, under the caudillo Juan Facundo Quiroga, became a dramatic case study in the monetary chaos that plagued the post-independence Río de la Plata region. The national government in Buenos Aires, struggling with a severe shortage of precious metals and the collapse of its own paper currency, authorized provincial governments to issue their own copper coinage to facilitate local trade. La Rioja, home to minor but operational gold mines, seized this opportunity not merely for local convenience but as a direct instrument of Quiroga's political and military power.

Quiroga established a mint at Los Llanos, producing crude copper coins known as riojanas. These coins were intentionally overvalued; their official face value (in reales) far exceeded their intrinsic metal worth. This allowed Quiroga to finance his army and political operations at a tremendous profit, effectively imposing a hidden tax on the provincial economy. The sheer volume of this low-value coinage was staggering, with production estimates reaching into the millions of pieces within a two-year period, flooding not only La Rioja but also circulating widely in neighboring provinces.

The consequence was severe inflation and economic distortion. By 1828, the market had drastically discounted the value of the riojanas, and they became a symbol of monetary disorder. The oversupply of debased coinage disrupted commerce, as merchants and other provinces were forced to negotiate their ever-depreciating value. This situation ended abruptly in late 1828 when Quiroga, following his military defeat, was compelled by the Treaty of La Tablada to close the Los Llanos mint, ceasing production and leaving a legacy of worthless copper that would plague the regional economy for years to come.