2 Centavos

Argentina's postwar copper coinage of this period was a direct consequence of Perón's nationalization agenda. The 1946 acquisition of the Banco Central and subsequent monetary reforms pushed the government toward domestic metal sourcing, replacing the nickel-clad issues of the late 1930s. These copper centavos circulated heavily through a period of rapid industrial wage growth and price controls that made small denominations genuinely functional in daily commerce — until inflation gradually rendered them irrelevant by the early 1950s.