5 Gramos

Tierra del Fuego's privately issued gold tokens of 1889 were struck for the estancia operations of José Menéndez and Mauricio Braun, the merchant dynasties that effectively controlled the Patagonian sheep economy at the southern tip of the continent. With the Argentine state exercising almost no monetary presence in the region, these pieces circulated as functional currency among workers who rarely left the estancias — a captive economy with its own medium of exchange.

The alloy, notably below standard gold fineness, reflects practical realities of private minting rather than any sovereign monetary policy.