Issued in the immediate aftermath of Pinochet's September 1973 coup, this coin circulated under a government that had abolished the Allende-era economic apparatus but had not yet replaced the currency itself. The escudo, introduced in 1960 to replace the peso at a ratio of 1000:1, was already being consumed by inflation so acute that a 100-unit denomination in base metal was essentially worthless by the time these pieces reached circulation. Chile would abandon the escudo entirely in 1975, reintroducing the peso at 1000 escudos to one — a structural echo of the very reform that had created the escudo fifteen years earlier.
Issued in the immediate aftermath of Pinochet's September 1973 coup, this coin circulated under a government that had abolished the Allende-era economic apparatus but had not yet replaced the currency itself. The escudo, introduced in 1960 to replace the peso at a ratio of 1000:1, was already being consumed by inflation so acute that a 100-unit denomination in base metal was essentially worthless by the time these pieces reached circulation. Chile would abandon the escudo entirely in 1975, reintroducing the peso at 1000 escudos to one — a structural echo of the very reform that had created the escudo fifteen years earlier.