See full images — free registration
Continue with Google — it's free or register with email

1 Real

Issuer Santiago del Estero
Year 1823
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Weight 2.7 g
Diameter Log in to see details
Thickness Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Technique Log in to see details
Orientation Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse script Latin
Obverse lettering Log in to see details
Reverse description A bold potent cross with splayed, clubbed terminals occupies the central field, rendered in a simple, robust style typical of early Argentine provincial hammered coinage. The cross is centrally positioned with equal arms and distinctive serif-like terminations on each limb. A prominent beaded inner border runs along the coin's periphery, clearly visible particularly along the left and upper edges of the flan. The field surrounding the cross is plain and unadorned, consistent with the austere utilitarian character of this emergency issue.
Reverse script Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Edge Log in to see details
Mint Log in to see details
Mintage Log in to see details
Additional information

Santiago del Estero's 1823 billon coinage belongs to the chaotic monetary patchwork of the early Argentine provincial period, when the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata existed in name but not in monetary practice. With no functioning national mint and Buenos Aires asserting economic dominance it could not yet enforce, interior provinces struck their own fractional silver-copper issues to address acute small-change shortages. Santiago del Estero's output was limited and brief — the province lacked the infrastructure for sustained minting, and these pieces circulated hard in a frontier economy with few alternatives.