1 Centavo Taino Artifact, Silver

The Taíno artifact series issued by the Banco Central drew directly from the pre-Columbian collection held by the Museo del Hombre Dominicano in Santo Domingo, using archaeological objects as design sources at a moment when Dominican cultural policy was actively promoting indigenous heritage as a counterweight to the country's overwhelmingly Spanish-colonial identity. The silver variant of this denomination was struck for collectors rather than circulation — the base circulation coinage of this period was brass-plated steel.

KM#72a distinguishes this copper-plated silver issue from the standard circulation type, a distinction that matters: the plating specification makes it an unusual hybrid composition rarely seen in Latin American commemorative coinage of the 1980s.