1000 Pesos FAO - Copper Pattern

This copper piece is a pattern struck by the Casa de Moneda in anticipation of the FAO's global coin program, which enlisted national mints throughout the late 1960s to issue coinage promoting food production and agricultural development. Uruguay's participation reflected the acute economic pressures of the period — the country was deep in the monetary instability that would eventually force a full currency reform in 1975, collapsing the peso at a ratio of 1000 old pesos to one new peso. The denomination itself, then, was already a casualty in waiting.