10 Centavos Non-magnetic

Guatemala's shift to nickel brass for this denomination coincided with a period of severe political instability — the country cycled through military governments and a brutal civil conflict that would not formally end until the 1996 peace accords. The long production window of over three decades reflects monetary inertia rather than stability; the design and composition persisted largely because larger economic crises demanded attention elsewhere.

KM#277 is distinguished from its magnetic successor by composition alone — a distinction that matters to type collectors but rarely surfaces in general circulation sorting.