1 Real

Guatemala's 1 Real issues of this period were struck under the liberal reform government that had displaced the conservative order in 1871, with President Justo Rufino Barrios aggressively modernizing state finances through the 1880s. The alloy specification — .835 fine rather than the traditional .900 — reflects a deliberate cost reduction adopted across Central American minting in the later nineteenth century as silver prices fluctuated on world markets following the demonetization of silver by major European powers.

The series was rendered obsolete by Guatemala's adoption of the peso decimal system, which accelerated the withdrawal of real-denominated coinage from circulation before the decade closed.