1/2 Real

Guatemala's half real of this period was struck under the liberal reform government of Justo Rufino Barrios, who seized power in 1873 and aggressively restructured the country's finances to attract foreign investment. The coinage was part of a broader decimalization push, though the persistence of real-denominated silver alongside newer decimal issues created a transitional monetary muddle that lasted well into the 1880s.

The two-year production window ended abruptly as the quetzal-based decimal system displaced the colonial-era real denominations entirely.