Inflation kills last coin

Press, 26 February 1983, Page 17

Inflation kills last coin

NZPA-Reuter Buenos Aires Some people just threw them away. Others used them to stop the table wobbling, or to hurl at soccer referees. Now, coins in Argentina, already virtually worthless after years of triple-figure inflation, have been dealt a fresh, fatal blow by a rise in public transport fares. The cheapest bus fare in Buenos Aires has been rounded up from 6300 to 7000 pesos. That means the end of the road for the biggest denomination 100-peso coin, which has lost a battle for survival against the smallest denomination, the 500-peso and 1000-peso banknotes. The shiny, yellow, brass-

coated 100-peso coin with the effigy of the national hero. General Jose de San Martin, will not even buy a candy bar at the current 221 per cent annual inflation rate. It ' was used only for a bus fare. More than 500 of them were needed for a dollar's worth at the official exchange rate — 740 at the black market rate. So with the soccer season finished, who needs them now? Coins cannot be used in slot machines either. You would need 30 100-peso coins to make a local telephone call and 130 to park a car on a meter for an hour. Telephone boxes and parking meters are worked by tokens sold at newspaper

kiosks, but these do not solve the problem for vending machines with a range of prices, and so there are none for the various brands of cigarettes. A spokesman for the National Mint said that 50peso and 100-peso coins were produced until the end of last year. However, later this year coins would be reborn when the Government implemented a plan to lop four zeros from the currency. Then a new peso will be worth 10,000 old ones. But for the man in the street, still not very well adjusted to a 1969 reform which lopped off two zeros, it will be worth a million.