1/2 Peso

The Banco Central de la República Dominicana was established in 1947, replacing a currency arrangement that had long been managed through U.S. financial oversight — a hangover from the American occupation that ended in 1924. This half peso was struck across a politically turbulent stretch: the 1978 election saw Silvestre Antonio Guzmán defeat the incumbent Joaquín Balaguer, marking one of the few peaceful transfers of power in Dominican history to that point. Balaguer's initial refusal to concede, and subsequent U.S. pressure to honor the result, made 1978 a genuinely consequential year for the republic.