20 Pesos 2017, Argentina
| no number in katalog | - |
| Years of issue: | 03.10.2017 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Presidente del Banco Central de la República Argentina: Federico Sturzenegger, Presidente H.C. Senadores: Gabriela Michetti |
| Serie: | Argentina’s Fauna |
| Specimen of: | 2016 |
| 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:
Guanako and electrotype 20.
About the Guanaco, please read the description of the obverse.
Avers:
In the foreground of the banknote is the Guanaco.
Also, on top, on the banknote are paw prints of the Guanaco and its profile (in the upper right corner, kneeling).
The Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) (from Quechua "Wanaku") is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Its name comes from the Quechua word huanaco (modern spelling wanaku). Young guanacos are called chulengos.
An animal of a slim, light build, in proportions resembling a deer or an antelope, but with a more elongated neck. The long neck of the Guanaco serves as a balance when walking and running. Body length 120-175 cm., Tail length - 15-25 cm., Height at withers 90-130 cm; weight - 115-140 kg. Two-fingered limbs, only the third and fourth fingers are preserved. Feet narrow, mobile, deeply dissected between fingers.
Here is how Gerald Darrell describes Guanaco in his book, "Land of Rustles":
"He had long, chiseled, like a racehorse, legs, a slender body and a long graceful neck, a bit like a giraffe. The muzzle is much longer and more elegant than a lama, but with the same arrogant expression. His eyes were black and huge. Guanaco looked at us in an imaginary lorgnette with small graceful ears and a chin upturned. Three of his wives and two babies stood behind him in a close and timid gaggle, each of them was no bigger than a terrier. the spectacle is worn out The half of the expedition was full of enthusiastic sighs and baby talk. The animal fur was not dirty brown, as I had expected, but almost red. Only the neck and legs had a light shade like sand in the sun, and the body was covered with thick, beautiful reddish-brown hair."
It is the largest herbivore in South America, tamed by the Quechua Indians more than 6 thousand years ago. They also gave the mind its modern name "Guanaco" (from wanaku).
Guanaco is attributed to camelids because of two-fingered limbs, ending with curved blunt claws, and a callus in the entire foot (which is why it is included in the corpse squad). When walking, Guanaco rests on the phalanges, not on the tips of their fingers.
These animals, like the vicunas, are emptied at the same points, usually on hillocks or familiar paths. It is there that the locals discover the elevations of the manure, which they use as fuel.
According to Paleogeneticists, the ancestors of Guanacos (ancient camelids) appeared on Earth more than 40 million years ago, and some of them became extinct in the Ice Age, and the second, the survivors, migrated to the mountains. Here they adapted to low pressure and reduced oxygen content in the air. Now Guanaco can be found in South America, in areas with a harsh climate - from the mountain peaks of the Andes to Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.
The modern Guanaco range covers:
Argentina;
Bolivia;
Paraguay;
Peru;
Chile;
Falkland Islands (introduced).
Important! It is estimated that most of the guanaco livestock (81-86%) are in Argentina, about 14-18% live in Chile, and less than 1% in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay combined. Guanaco inhabit the pampas, semi-deserts and mountain landscapes, ranging from foothills to 5.5 thousand meters above sea level, feeling out of place on the plains below 3 thousand meters. (simple-fauna.ru .rus)
The background of the banknote resembles the Patagonian natural environment. In the upper quadrant: the sky and images of traces of Guanaco in several directions, as a symbol of multiplicity, and decorative flowers on both edges. In the upper part, on the left, “XX” means the denomination of the banknote, in roman numeral.
Since the Bank of Argentina does not give information on which particular flowers are shown on the banknote, I dare to make some assumptions. Thank you so much Kate Gibson, from the UK, and to Olga, from Guy, Orenburg region, Russia for help in search of the flowers of Patagonia.
The are 2 options:
First option) On the banknote, above, the flowers of Cistante grandiflora (Rock purslane), this flower is also called "pata de guanaco" or "paw of guanaco".
Grows in Patagonia - the residence of the main population of guanaco.
Five-petal flowers 2-4 cm. in diameter. Herbaceous, very polymorphic biennial, 70 cm. tall. The leaves in the basal rosette, fleshy, oval, 10 cm in length and 4 cm. in width. Flowers 5-petal, red, 6 cm. in diameter, collected in the brush.
Second option) On banknote are the rosulate violas - endemic to the Andes of the Argentine Patagonia - Viola sacculus.
The rosulate violas of South America are amazing. Adapted to the harsh, windy environment provided by the mountains of Chile and Patagonia, these little plants are as tough as they are beautiful!
Presumably, at the bottom, on banknote are flowers of Olsynium lyckholmii or similar flowers of Iridaceae family.
Olsynium (huilmo in Chile; formerly part of Sisyrinchium) is a genus of summer-dormant rhizomatous perennial flowering plants in the iris family Iridaceae, native to sunny hillsides in South America and western North America.
Olsynium lyckholmii grows in Central Chile and Southern Argentina. (alchetron.com)
Denomination in words is on top. In numerals are in three corners.
Revers:
On the right - again, flowers of Cistante grandiflora and paw prints of a Guanaco.
To the left of the coat of arms of Argentina is a wind rose, showing the direction — the South-west — as the habitat area of the Guanacos on a map of Argentina.
In the center is a map of Argentina and darkened areas on it, meaning areas of Guanaco's habitat, today. Shaded areas (North-East of Argentina) - is the territory of residence of the Guanacos more than 100 years ago.
The map of Argentina shows, in addition to the continental part, the eastern part of the island of Tierra del Fuego (the western part belongs to Chile), the Falklands or the Malvinas Islands (which belong to Great Britain, but Argentina considers them its territory) and, in a rectangle, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea, in Antarctica, which Argentina also considers its territory.
The main image of the banknote is a view of the mountains and the lake in the steppes of Patagonia (ecoregion). Behind the lake, on the left, in front of the mountains, the profile of the guanaco is visible.
Since the Bank of Argentina does not indicate where exactly, in Patagonia, the image used on the banknote was made, I decided to conduct my own search.
Of course, it’s absolutely impossible to determine this, but ... It seems to me that on the banknote is the Patagonia region between the Torres del Paine National Park, in Chile and the Argentine lake of Argentina (Lago Argentino), in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz.
Patagonia is most often called the geographical region located on the southernmost tip of the continent South America between latitudes 39 ° and 55 ° S, and with the exception of a small territory in Chile, which mainly occupies the territory of Argentina. From the mountain ranges of Patagonia stretches to the west through the river. Colorado to Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean. To the west, it includes the territory of Valdivia on the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego. In Patagonia, there are 4 ecoregions, or botanical and geographical provinces - Monte, Subantarctic, Altoandina and Patagonian proper, all together covering about 750 thousand km2.
1. The Ecoregion Monte covers the central and eastern parts of the administrative provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro and the northeastern part of the province of Chubut in Argentina. This article is devoted to this ecoregion "The Monte Desert and its Biogeographical Mystery".
2. Ecoregion Sub-Antarctic is partly located in Chile, partly in Argentina. In Argentina, it stretches 75 km. wide in a narrow strip. and a length of 2,200 km. along the coast of the Pacific Ocean first, and then the Strait of Magellan.
3. Altoandina Ecoregion covers the highest peaks of the Andes and the highest ranges in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes. Ecoregion is wedged into Ecathregion Subantarctic.
4. Patagonia Ecoregion, or Patagonia Desert itself, is the largest ecoregion of the region, with an area of about 534 thousand km2, with a low population density. It extends from the central foothills of the Andes in Mendoza to the south, gradually expanding to include the western parts of the administrative provinces of Neuquen and Rio Negro, and almost entirely the provinces of Chubut, Santa Cruz and the northeastern part of Tierra del Fuego. In the west it borders on Altoandina - to the south almost to the parallel of 38 ° S. and further with Subantractica. In the east, it borders on the Monte Ecoregion (forming a blurred transition). In the central part of Neuquen, small ridges and plateaus belong to the Patagonian ecoregion, while the other part of Neuquen (depressions and ravines) belongs to Monte.
The term "Patagonia" is in fact not entirely unambiguous, since they call it the Patagonian steppes, Patagonian Andes, in general, all four ecoregions, then one of them. Often, all treeless territories of Argentina south of Rio Colorado are roughly called Patagonia as a natural area. Absolutely accurate definition of Patagonia does not exist. Sometimes even Tierra del Fuego is counted as Patagonia, and sometimes the Falkland Islands. Among geobotanists, Patagonia is interpreted in the same ambiguous manner. Argentine botanists emit 17 provinces, then 12 (Cabrera, 1994; Bolzon, Bolzon, 2005) in the vegetation of the country, and Patagonia is regarded as a province, then as an area comprising 7 provinces. Another common point of view is that the Patagonian botanical-geographical province itself includes the Patagonian steppes / semi-deserts and the Monte region (that is, two ecoregions).
Patagonia is characterized by peculiar landforms - mesas - stepped plateaus with steep slopes, dissected by deep canyons. The stepped plateaus of the Patagonian platform lie to the east of the Andean ranges and to the south of the marginal platform elevations of the Predordiler and the Pampa Sierras, stretching to the Atlantic coast in the east. Steps descend from west to east to the Atlantic Ocean from a height of 2000 m to 100-150 m. In Argentine Patagonia, there are 13 distinct terraces, or levels of table surfaces, each about 100 m high. This probably corresponds to the number of major tectonic shifts (uplifts) while compressing the planet and crushing the Andes.
These cool, dry, windswept plateaus are characterized by the predominance of the processes of physical weathering and eolian-structural forms of mesorelief, the transit nature of the low-water river network. The coast is steep and steep, with the only convenient harbor of Puerto Madryn. At the western border of this region, many plateaus also form ledges facing the foothill depression. This depression is a chain of hollows with bottoms at an altitude of 300-600 meters above sea level, separated by spurs of the Andes. The plateaus themselves are formed mainly by horizontally deposited layers of sedimentary rocks, sometimes with layers of dark-colored lavas. The top surface of the plateau with a height of 1200-1500 m is cut by deep canyons in the direction from west to east. Most of these canyons remain dry throughout the year, and only a few have permanent streams; among the latter, the most significant canyon is Rio Colorado.
Above the flattened “table” surface of the plateau, separate remnant hills rise, marking the exits of the most resistant to weathering and erosion of rocks. The continental climate features of Patagonia determine the intensity of physical weathering, which is also promoted by tectonic and lithological features. The ancient crystalline basement of the Patagonian platform is covered with a powerful cover of marine and continental, including ancient water-glacial, sediments. Most of the surface is covered with shales, but closer to the Andes, they are replaced by porphyries, granites and basalt lavas.
In the central part of the region there is an extensive zone of basaltic lavas, formed as a result of volcanic eruptions that participated in the formation of the plateau from the tertiary period to the modern era. In the western part of the lava overlapped by glacial deposits. Here, on contact with crumpled Cretaceous rocks, raised by Quaternary granites, powerful erosion processes occur - mainly due to the melting and retreat of ice. Accompanied by tectonic movements, they lead to the formation of deep depressions of the meridional direction, which separate the plateau from the first mountain ranges - Prekordilera. In the west, similar meridional depressions pass right at the foot of the Andean Cordillera. It is in them are the most fertile land in Patagonia.
The tertiary plateau, flat in the east, gradually rises to the west, at the base has rocks of the Upper Cretaceous. First come the chalk hills, raised by granites and diorites, undoubtedly also of tertiary origin, in some places they are split, where fossil remains of the tertiary fauna can be found. The most interesting fossil fauna of vertebrate animals is found in the sediments of the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. Here are found genera of dinosaurs and giant wingless birds, proving their commonness with the Australian mainland. Then, closer to the west, metamorphic slates of unknown age begin, then quartzites appear, lying on primitive granites and gneisses forming the Cordillera axis. Porphyrites are found between shales and quartzites. Tertiary time sediments are heterogeneous in nature and structure, geologists have different opinions about the sequence and age of the structures.
Volcanic rocks cover an area of over 120 thousand km2 in the Patagonian desert, mainly in the Somun-Kura massif (North Patagon massif) and the Deseado massif. Volcanic rocks have an age of two episodes: one period of volcanism was in the Eocene-Miocene, and the other from the end of the Miocene to the Pleistocene.
The Patagonia consolidated platform was subjected to differentiated raising and lowering, splits with basalt outpourings, which in many places "booked" the plateau. The crystalline basement is covered mostly by the horizontal strata of Mesozoic-Tertiary sandstones, variegated clays and the shallow Patagonian molasses (in the east), which are easily destroyed. The entire surface of the plains in southeastern Argentina — the Monte and Patagonian deserts — is composed of tertiary marine marl-containing sedimentary rocks, with inclusions of fossilized invertebrates of Maastricht and the beginning of the Cretaceous period. It is believed that this plain was flooded by the Atlantic Ocean at the time of marine transgressions. A number of petrified sea snails, clams, cephalopods, turtles, and shark teeth, crayfish shells and some larger animals are found in the sedimentary strata. Huge areas of this plain are salted and alkalized, and in the lowlands remains of the seas - dried up or partially dried up salt marshes and lakes. In a number of sections of the Cretaceous sediments, rich in limestone, dissected by strong erosion. Here canyons, ledges, deep ravines, outcrops are formed, often weathered by the same eolian processes.
All this testifies to the fact that in the Tertiary times the territory of Argentina was the bottom of the sea (ocean), and later during the compression of the globe it raised, and on the western outskirts it was crushed into folds. Patagonia has experienced a general upswing since the end of the Pliocene. It determined the deep penetration of watercourses originating in the Andes and a significant height (up to 2000 m.) Of the plateau. From the Quaternary glaciation on it remained moraine and fluvioglacial cover. Deflation and corrosion produce eolian depressions in depressions, turning structural and tectonic benches into fantastic sculptures; the wind blows small particles from fluvioglacial sediments, leaving a characteristic pebble cover on the surface and heaping sandy hills.
In the Pleistocene, for about 1.6 million years, the Patagonian Andes were periodically covered with extensive surface glaciers. Glacial landforms, including moraines and oses, are widely found in the west of Patagonia, while extensive periglacial plains open to the east.
In the west of the Patagonian desert is a longitudinal predandian hollow. Due to tectonics, processed by glaciers, then concentrated by melting glacial waters, it is made with fluvioglacial and lake-alluvial sediments. The edges of the terminal glacial lakes that feed the Patagonian rivers usually lie in the predandian hollow. A characteristic feature of the piedmont zone is falling from the Andes fens (Sondas), causing sudden thaws, snowmelt and winter floods.
On the left, on the banknote, is a small cub of Guanaco is shown (as they call it in Argentina, chulengo, as a symbol of the survival of the species). Next to it are flowers.
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.
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