1 Decimo Real

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.