1/2 Melgarejo

Mariano Melgarejo seized power in Bolivia in December 1864 and almost immediately debased the national coinage — this half unit being struck in .666 fine silver rather than the .900 standard that preceded it. The debasement was not subtle policy; it was naked fiscal extraction, with the difference pocketed to fund a regime notorious for erratic governance and personal excess. Melgarejo was eventually driven into exile in 1871 and killed in Lima shortly after.

Fonrobert documented this type with evident interest, likely because the series marks one of the more brazen monetary debasements in nineteenth-century South American history.