Por favor, ¿no tenés una moneda?

In Buenos Aires, one peso is worth so much more. The city is in the midst of a massive coin shortage. Although I don't know the source of this problem, I do know the result: a daily, desperate search for monedas (as coins are called here). Buses - by far the best way to travel - do not accept bills, making coins a necessity for most Buenos Aires residents. Cashiers angrily beg their customers for correct change or even lower the price to avoid losing monedas. A few weeks ago, everyone rode the subway for free, because the company simply couldn't make change. Stores hang signs in their windows: "Tampoco tenemos monedas." We don't have coins either.

As a new arrival searching for bus fare, I would innocently walk into kioskos (Argentinian convenience stores) and hand over a 2 peso bill, expecting a shiny one peso coin and a smile along with my purchase. Instead, I received angry looks, headshakes, and sometimes a curt "no." The kioskeros didn't want my business if it was only a trick to make them part with their monedas.

I soon learned to be slier. Simple transactions now involve mental warfare. Assessing the cashier, I must decide which tact to take: will I smile and play dumb, confront his frown with an equally unmovable glare, or just lie about the contents of my purse when he pleads, "una moneda, ¿puede ser?"

For one glorious month, this all changed. One unspeakably kind cashier gave me five one-peso coins. Secure in my supply, I started to spend my monedas a bit more freely, and through this experience developed a theory of moneda karma. For every time I cut a weary cashier some slack, and forked over exact change, I was rewarded not only with a pleasant human interaction, but also, at some point, with a cashier who would be equally kind to me. For several weeks, I had a steady moneda supply, which I made last by walking and taking the subway whenever possible. At a street fair, I bought a one peso churro with a one-peso coin, and the vendor's eyes lit up with gratitude. I was living the good life.

I spent the last of my monedas yesterday, and now I'm just like everyone else, lying to strangers and chasing fallen five cent coins into gutters. I don't know where this problem came from, and I have no solution. But I do know that paying in exact change, once a convenience, now means defeat.