5 Centavos

Nicaragua's copper-nickel coinage of this period survived one of the more durable political arrangements in Central American history — the Somoza family's grip on the country ran almost the entire span of this type's production, from Anastasio Somoza García's consolidation of power through his son's presidency. The coins circulated through the 1972 Managua earthquake, one of the hemisphere's most destructive urban disasters, which killed an estimated 10,000 people and effectively ended whatever remained of the old city's commercial infrastructure.