5 Centavos José San Martin

The 1950 Argentine 5 centavos belongs to a series retooled under Perón's first presidency, when the government systematically replaced colonial-era iconography with nationalist imagery honoring independence heroes. That same year, Argentina declared 1950 the "Year of the Liberator General San Martín" to mark the centenary of San Martín's death in Boulogne-sur-Mer — a designation that drove commemorative output across multiple denominations simultaneously. Copper-nickel coinage from this period was already living on borrowed time; acute metal shortages would force a shift to steel-clad issues within a few years.