1/2 Sol de Oro Large Coat of Arms

The Sol de Oro had been Peru's currency since 1931, but by the mid-1960s inflation was steadily eroding its purchasing power. The brass half-sol pieces struck across this window were workhorses of everyday commerce during a period of significant political turbulence, including the 1968 coup in which General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew Fernando Belaúnde Terry and installed a left-nationalist military government that would ultimately push the sol toward collapse by the following decade.