The Central Bank (BCRA) announced at the beginning of May the launch of the new $10,000 bill, to which the $20,000 bill will be added in the third quarter of the year. The government of Javier Milei had announced at the beginning of the year the placement of these new papers on the market with the aim of “facilitating” transactions in the context of high inflation that the country was going through.
To print these banknotes, the Central Bank hired two mints abroad: China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (which makes the $10,000 banknotes – which bears the face of Manuel Belgrano and María Remedios del Valle – and the $20,000 banknote – Juan Bautista Alberdi-) and Crane Currency Malta Limited (which also prints another portion of the $10,000 papers).
The entity ordered a total of 1,190 million banknotes of both denominations, which will be divided as follows:
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{{msg}} {{msg}}- 960 million $10,000 bills (average of 21 bills per Argentine).
- 230 million $20,000 bills (average of 5 bills per Argentine).
For the printing of these banknotes, the Central Bank will pay a total of about US$ 89,525,000. Of that total, US$ 78,790,000 will be allocated to the contract with China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation, while to the company Crane Currency Malta Limited You will be paid about US$10,735,000.
In China, the $10,000 bill costs $84.92 per thousand, that is, 1,000 units of that currency, while the $20,000 bill has a cost of $58 per thousand units in that same mint.
For its part, the printing of $10,000 bills in Malta costs US$56 per 1,000 bills.
In both cases, they are values that are below what Alberto Fernández’s management paid for a good part of the banknotes he printed between 2020 and 2023.
In the previous government, the Central Bank hired the Mint to be in charge of printing banknotes. Since the demand from the BCRA was so high, it had to be subcontracted to other mints abroad. The previous administration even left a significant debt with China and Malta for the printing of those papers. It is estimated that the debt with the former was US$24 million, while with the latter it amounted to US$11,767,000.
The thing is that, while Milei pays 56 dollars for 1,000 $10,000 bills in Malta, the management of Alberto Fernández, who hired Casa de Moneda, which in turn subcontracted to other houses abroad, paid 120 dollars for $1,000 bills. that were made in Brazil, Spain, Malta and China.
A source from the Central Bank explained that by printing larger denomination bills, logistics costs are also considerably reduced because less paper is required to cover the same amount of currency.
Why the tickets that Milei ordered are cheaper than those that Alberto Fernández bought
A case that could demonstrate this is that the new $20,000 bill will be paid 58 dollars per thousand, while the 1,000 $500 bills were paid 99 dollars per 1,000 units during the previous administration. Same value for the $200 and $100 bills, which also cost $99 per thousand units. Both were printed in Brazil.
This is due – in part – to the fact that the new management of the Central Bank no longer contracts the Mint to print these banknotes but directly contracts an organization abroad.
A source linked to the previous government pointed out that the bills were more expensive because more security measures were used, but the new BCRA authorities point out that the $10,000 and $20,000 bills are printed on cotton paper, with their traditional safeguards such as the watermark and security thread. It also has security elements that allow its recognition by machine.
In 2023, the demand for banknotes by the State was so great that about US$7 million were spent on transfers to bring that volume of money to the country. The tickets arrived by air and sea. (with information from TN)
