20 000 Nuevos Pesos Obverse trial strike

Uruguay's 1984 coinage program unfolded under the military government's final year of control before the return to civilian rule — a transition that created significant institutional uncertainty at the Banco Central. Trial strikes from this period were produced to test die alignment and planchet behavior before authorizing full production runs, and silver examples like this one represent working documents of the minting process rather than pieces intended for any release. The "Nuevos Pesos" denomination itself had been introduced in 1975 at a rate of 1,000 old pesos, a redenomination that did nothing to outpace the inflation that made 20,000-unit face values routine within a decade.