5 Centavos

Argentina's monetary situation in the early 1970s was deteriorating sharply under successive governments struggling with inflation that would eventually spiral into one of the worst currency crises in Latin American history. The shift to aluminium for this denomination was a direct cost-cutting measure — by 1970, the metal value of the previous bronze coinage had begun approaching face value. These circulated heavily through a period that saw three different heads of state in 1973 alone, and the series was effectively rendered obsolete when a new peso replaced the peso moneda nacional in 1970 — meaning this coin existed entirely within the transitional peso ley 18.188 system introduced that same year.