5 Centavos

Bolivia's silver coinage of this period was produced under chronic monetary strain, as the country's economy remained almost entirely dependent on the output of the Potosí mines — the same mountain that had flooded Spanish colonial treasuries for three centuries. By the 1870s, Potosí's silver yield was declining sharply, yet the government continued issuing silver fractionals partly out of institutional habit and partly because the tin and rubber revenues that would eventually reshape Bolivian finances had not yet matured into reliable alternatives.

The Potosí mint mark PTS appears on these pieces. Potosí had been striking coins continuously since 1574.