25 Centavos

KM#139a marks the switch from the earlier silver-bearing alloy to a straight copper-nickel composition, a change driven by the spike in global silver prices in the late 1970s and early 1980s that made the old planchets worth more as metal than as money. El Salvador was not alone — the same economics forced similar recompositions across Latin America within a few years of each other.

By 1986, the country was also deep in civil war, with the broader economy under severe strain from conflict spending and U.S. aid dependency. Coinage of this period circulated hard.