1 Bolívar

Venezuela's 1 Bolívar coinage of this period was struck under the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship, a government that simultaneously oversaw an oil-fueled construction boom and the systematic suppression of political opposition. The Caracas mint had been shuttered for decades by this point — these were produced abroad, almost certainly at the Philadelphia Mint, which handled much of Venezuela's coinage needs through the mid-twentieth century.

The .835 fine silver specification traces directly to an 1879 monetary reform, and the type had persisted with only minor interruptions for over seventy years by the time this piece was struck.