Coins of the Realm

Argentine coins

I mentioned in an earlier post that, by a mere coincidence, Jen could catch a bus across the street from our apartment that would take her all the way downtown, to within a block or two of her office. As it turns out, she also has the option of walking around the corner from our building (one block) and catching a different bus that takes her to the front door of her office. Amazing!

For the Americans in our reading audience, you are aware that public transportation in the U.S. stinks. Except for a very few urban centers, the only reasonable way to get where you need to go in my country is by automobile. However, one of the nice features of our life when we live overseas is our lack of dependence on the automobile. When we live in the States, Jen has her car and I have mine. While we go places together on the weekend, during the week we travel independent of each other - each of us burning gas and insurance premiums as we move around our individual environments, a thousand miles a month apiece. When we live overseas, we never drive cars - ever. Although I really do enjoy driving, what a relief not to have a car!

We have, in the past, had the luck to live in a few places where the public transportation was cheap and easy. We rode the city buses in Bulgaria and Slovenia - efficient and inexpensive. In Kyiv, Ukraine, the metro was ten cents a ride. One thin dime to go all the way across the big city! When I lived in San Francisco 30 years ago, the bus was a quarter - I wonder what a bus ride in S.F. costs today...three bucks? Which brings me to the bus service in our new city, Buenos Aires.

Joe's favorite bus: the 29

The bus service here is pretty much awesome. Mainly because you can get where you need to go easily, with a minimum of hoofing it, for about thirty cents a ride. There are dozens of independent bus companies that make up the BA bus system, driving zig-zagging routes throughout this huge city of 13 million. The price structure and method of payment for each is identical: you get on, tell the driver approximately where you plan to go, and pay between 1.10 and 1.25 pesos by dropping your coins into the machine. Easy, right? Es muy facil! This, however, is where it gets tricky.

Luckily for us, the current conversion rate for Argentine pesos into US dollars is almost exactly four to one: 4 pesos = 1 dollar/ 1 peso = a quarter. This first-grade level math allows for super-quick calculations on the fly and keeps us from accidently paying 8 bucks for a small bottle of Tabasco. So far, so good. We are handling notes ranging from 100 pesos (25 bucks) to 2 pesos (50 cents) - eezey-peezey, no?
"But whaddya have smaller than a 2 peso note?"
Ah...we have coins in Argentina! One peso coins, 50 centavo coins, 25c, 10c...Unfortunately, we have approximately 112 total coins in circulation in a country of 41 million people...we are suffering a severe coin shortage in this huge metropolis where the labrynthine bus system takes - only coins. Yikes!

We had been tipped off to this situation and began (like everyone else in BA) hoarding coins early on. One actually starts planning their purchases around the potential return in monedas. We've learned to try to never to buy anything for an even number of pesos, unless using a 5 peso note. Example: if something costs 14 pesos and you pay with a 20, you'll receive three 2 peso notes in change (every merchant outside the major chain supermarkets is hoarding, too). If you pay with a 10 and a 5, they have to give you a 1 peso coin...score! Better yet, buy something for 12.50, pay with a 10 and two 2s and get back 1.50 in coins...GOOOOL!!!!!!!
It's getting a little crazy now that our once fat stash of coinage has dwindled down to nuthin'. The last couple of days we've been reduced to buying odd amounts of junk-food just for the price -otherwise, we would be forced to walk across town. Tomorrow, we're going to visit a reputable bank and beg for coins. I plan on shaving and wearing a tie.