Issued to coincide with the quatercentenary of Columbus's 1492 voyage, this series was part of a broader Latin American commemorative impulse that swept several republics simultaneously. El Salvador's copper centavo of this period circulated hard in a country whose economy ran almost entirely on coffee exports, with rural laborers receiving wages partly in small copper — coins that rarely survived more than a few years of use intact.
Issued to coincide with the quatercentenary of Columbus's 1492 voyage, this series was part of a broader Latin American commemorative impulse that swept several republics simultaneously. El Salvador's copper centavo of this period circulated hard in a country whose economy ran almost entirely on coffee exports, with rural laborers receiving wages partly in small copper — coins that rarely survived more than a few years of use intact.