2 Pesos 2002, Argentina
| in Krause book | Number: 346 |
| Years of issue: | 2002 |
| Edition: | -- |
| Signatures: | Presidente B.C.R.A: Alfonso de Prat-Gay (in office from 11.12.2002 until 23.09.2004), Presidente H.C. Diputados: Eduardo Camaño (in office from 30.12.2011 until 02.01.2002) |
| Serie: | 1997 - 2001 Issue |
| Specimen of: | 1997 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 155 х 65 |
| Printer: | Casa de Moneda de la Nación, Buenos Aires |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Portrait of Bartolomé Mitre and his initials BM.
Avers:
The engraving is, presumably, made after this drawing of Bartolomé Mitre. The drawing made in 1921 by Argentinian doctor, author and painter Cupertino del Campo (1873-1967).
Bartolomé Mitre Martínez (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, military figure, and author. He was the President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868.
The civil war of 1859 resulted in Mitre's defeat by Urquiza at the Battle of Cepeda, in 1860. Issues of customs revenue sharing were settled, and Buenos Aires reentered the Argentine Confederation. Victorious at the 1861 Battle of Pavón, however, Mitre obtained important concessions from the national army, notably the amendment of the Constitution to provide for indirect elections through an electoral college. In October 1862, Mitre was elected president of the republic, and national political unity was finally achieved; a period of internal progress and reform then commenced. During the Paraguayan War, Mitre was initially named the head of the allied forces.
Mitre was also the founder of La Nación, one of South America's leading newspapers, in 1870. His opposition to Autonomist Party nominee Adolfo Alsina, whom he viewed as a veiled Buenos Aires separatist, led Mitre to run for the presidency again, though the seasoned Alsina outmaneuvered him by fielding Nicolás Avellaneda, a moderate lawyer from remote Catamarca Province. The electoral college met on 12 April 1874, and awarded Mitre only three provinces, including Buenos Aires.
Mitre took up arms again. Hoping to prevent Avellaneda's 12 October inaugural, he mutineered a gunboat; he was defeated, however, and only President Avellaneda's commutation spared his life. Following the 1890 Revolution of the Park, he broke with the conservative National Autonomist Party PAN) and co-founded the Civic Union with reformist Leandro Alem. Mitre's desire to maintain an understanding with the ruling PAN led to the Civic Union's schism in 1891, upon which Mitre founded the National Civic Union, and Alem, the Radical Civic Union (the oldest existing party in Argentina).
He dedicated much of his time in later years to writing. According to some of his critics, as a historian Mitre took several questionable actions, often ignoring key documents and events on purpose in his writings. This caused his student Adolfo Saldías to distance himself from him, and for future revisionist historians such as José María Rosa to question the validity of his work altogether. He also wrote poetry and fiction (Soledad: novela original), and translated Dante's La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy) into Spanish. He was also an active freemason, and the grandfather of poet, Margarita Abella Caprile.
On his death in 1906, he was interred in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. 19 January 2006 marked the centenary of Mitre's death.
Mitre ranks as an important South-American historiographer. He wrote the best accounts of South America's wars of independence and published many works, amongst which are:
Historia de Belgrano y de la independencia argentina ["History of Belgrano and of the argentine independence"] (1857; fifth edition, four volumes, 1902)
Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana ["History of San Martín"] (1869; third edition, six volumes, 1907)
Rimas ["Rimes"] (new edition, 1890)
Ulrich Schmidl, primer historiador del Rio de la Plata ["Ulrich Schmidl, first historian of the Rio de la Plata"] (1890)
There is an abridged translation of the Historia de San Martín, entitled The Emancipation of South America (London, 1893) by W. Pilling. Mitre's speeches were collected as Arengas (third edition, three volumes, 1902). 
Behind the image of Bartolomé_Mitre is the text from his book "Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina" ("History of Belgrano and of the Independence of Argentina").
It is an Argentine history book written by Bartolomé Mitre. It is mainly a biography of Manuel Belgrano, but the author expanded the scope into the whole Argentine War of Independence, where Belgrano was involved. It was the first book about the history of Argentina, and as such it was the starting point of the historiography of Argentina. It includes as well the autobiography of Manuel Belgrano, which was published by the first time in this book.
When it was edited, the book generated controversies between the author and Dalmacio Vélez Sarsfield and Juan Bautista Alberdi.
On left side of the image of Bartolomé_Mitre are the front gates to his house in Buenos-Aires. Now here is museum.
Denomination in words centered, vertically. In numerals are in three corners and along whole field of banknote (except watermark field).
Revers:
The Museo Mitre (Spanish) (Mitre Museum) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a museum dedicated to Argentine history, as well as to the legacy of President Bartolomé Mitre.
Dating from 1785, the Spanish colonial home's first link to Argentine history was as the refuge sought by the last Viceroy of Río de la Plata, Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros, following the May Revolution of 1810. The home rented by General Bartolomé Mitre in 1860, and remained his residence during his tenure as the 6th President of Argentina, between 1862 and 1868; in recognition of his term as President, as well as for his contributions to national unity, a group of local citizens purchased the home in his name in 1868, and the statesman lived there until his death in 1906. La Nación, one of the nation's oldest and most influential dailies, was published here from its establishment in 1870, until 1895.
The home was purchased by the National Government via Law 4.943, in June of that year, and on June 3, 1907, the Mitre Museum opened its doors to the public. The museum's first director, Alejandro Rosa, had founded the Western Hemisphere Historic and Numismatic Society with Mitre in 1893, and following the classification of Mitre's extensive ethnolinguistic library, numismatic and other collections, the society was located in the museum from 1918 until 1971 (it was rechartered as the National Academy of History of Argentina in 1938).
In top right corner is the coat of arms of Argentina.
The coat of arms of the Argentine Republic (Escudo de la República Argentina) was established in its current form in 1944, but has its origins in the seal of the General Constituent Assembly of 1813.
It is unknown who designed the coat of arms. It is often mentioned that there were three men involved: Alvear, Monteagudo, and Vieytes, but it is known that a few years before, President Bernardino Rivadavia asked the Peruvian Antonio Isidoro Castro to create an Argentine coat of arms; however, the two schemes have never been found.
The coat of arms is a figure, in which at the top we find the gold-yellowed Sun of May, also found on the flag of Argentina. The rising sun symbolizes the rising of Argentina, as described in the first version of the Argentine National Anthem, se levanta a la faz de la tierra una nueva y gloriosa nación, meaning "a new and glorious nation rises to the surface of the Earth". It must be noticed how the verb "rise", and so in Spanish, can be used to describe the motion of the Sun.
In the center ellipse there are two shaking hands, connoting the unity of the provinces of Argentina. The hands come together to hold a pike, which represents power and willingness to defend freedom, epitomized by the Phrygian cap on the top of the spear.
The blue and white colors are symbols of the Argentine people and the same colors of the Argentine flag. The blue half of the ellipse symbolizes the sky and the white one denotes the Río de la Plata.
The hands are flesh coloured and stand for friendship, peace, unity, and brotherhood. The pike is brown (wooden), and the Phrygian cap is red, like the traditional French liberty cap. The proximity of the hands and the Phrygian cap, in addition to their individual meanings, represent the national motto of Argentina, en unión y libertad ("in unity and freedom"), and illustrate the idea that in unity (the hands) there is power (the pike), and in power there is freedom (the Phrygian cap).
The Phrygian cap was typically worn by the inhabitants of Phrygia, in the Anatolian peninsula, and is commonly mistaken for being a Pileus. The Pileus was a hat that in ancient Rome became a symbol of freed slaves, who were touched by their owners with a wooden pike before setting them free.
Laurel is another classical symbol. At the end of the ancient Olympic Games (and also the 2004 Summer Olympics), the winner was given a laurel crown, and since then it has symbolized triumph and glory.
Denominations in numerals are in lower right and top left corners, in words on the left side, vertically.
Comments:
6 Rhombuses on top are for visually impaired.
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