Argentina's peso is taking a hit. You wouldn't notice it much if you went to exchange your dollars at official currency exchanges, but the black market prices the dollar is fetching are alarming.

"Argentines have been rushing to buy U.S. dollars as a safer currency to park their money," notes CNN's Global Public Square. "In response, the government announced limits on the number of dollars you can buy. The result? A rampant black market. While one dollar officially buys you 6.6 Argentine pesos, you can actually get almost double that rate on the street: about 10.8 pesos."

People in Argentina have been hoarding U.S. dollars for a long time. Long considered as a safe hedge against the constantly volatile values of South American currencies, Argentines have often traded their local peso for dollars that they would stash in cash collections in their homes. In this South American nation, "mattress accounts" or "cookie jar accounts" are a real thing.

So much so that one particular shipment of damaged bills sent to the U.S.Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) for redemption came under a lot of scrutiny. The shipment, arriving in 2012 from Banco Piano in Argentina, was earmarked for additional investigation because of irregularities suggesting fraud.

"BEP experts consider it highly suspicious," wrote William Buckley according to Fox, "when two different mutilated bills, each submitted for redemption at a different time in different packages, have remarkably similar or the same burn marks and charring pattern."

In the end, roughly $200,000 was disallowed from the reimbursement.

Graciela Ibanez of Forbes reports that Argentina (as well as nearby Venezuela, are simply running out of dollars, adding that Argentina's dollar reserves dropped 30 percent last year to under $31 billion. Economists have cited various government moves such as price fixing and subsidies as causes for the plummeting Argentine peso.