Buenos Aires struck this copper piece under provincial authority, predating Argentine national coinage by over a decade. The decimo real denomination was an attempt to introduce a fractional copper currency into a region where small change had been chronically absent — Spanish colonial supply chains had never reliably served the Río de la Plata with low-value specie, and the problem persisted well into the independence period.
The two-year run across 1822–1823 produced enough die variation to generate the two CJ varieties, differences subtle enough that many examples circulated without distinction.
Buenos Aires struck this copper piece under provincial authority, predating Argentine national coinage by over a decade. The decimo real denomination was an attempt to introduce a fractional copper currency into a region where small change had been chronically absent — Spanish colonial supply chains had never reliably served the Río de la Plata with low-value specie, and the problem persisted well into the independence period.
The two-year run across 1822–1823 produced enough die variation to generate the two CJ varieties, differences subtle enough that many examples circulated without distinction.