Argentina: Home to ‘The World’s Most Annoying Economic Crisis’

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  12.03.08 | 4:15 PM ET

There’s a coin shortage in Argentina, and it’s driving people in the country bonkers. It’s particularly acute in Buenos Aires. Joe Keohane explains in a story for Slate:

Everywhere you look, there are signs reading, “NO HAY MONEDAS.” As a result, vendors here are more likely to decline to sell you something than to cough up any of their increasingly precious coins in change. I’ve tried to buy a 2-peso candy bar with a 5-peso note only to be refused, suggesting that the 2-peso sale is worth less to the vendor than the 1-peso coin he would be forced to give me in change.

A benefit for some travelers: “Subway employees are occasionally forced to wave commuters through because they are out of coins,” Keohane writes.