1 Centavo

Guatemala's centavo coinage of this period was produced under significant fiscal pressure — the country had defaulted on its external debt in the 1930s and operated with severe budget constraints throughout the Ubico dictatorship. The nickel brass alloy adopted here was a deliberate economy measure, replacing earlier bronze compositions as global copper prices made traditional cent-sized coinage increasingly expensive to produce.

The series ran across two distinct political periods: the authoritarian stability of Jorge Ubico's regime and its abrupt collapse in 1944, followed by the reformist governments of the October Revolution.