50 Centavos

Argentina's monetary unification in 1881 was less a triumph than a forced resolution. The country had been operating with a chaotic mixture of provincial currencies — Buenos Aires pesos, Córdoba reales, Entre Ríos paper — for decades after independence, and the Ley de Moneda of November 1881 finally imposed a single national system. These coins were among the first physical expressions of that law, struck at the Paris and Buenos Aires mints simultaneously as the government scrambled to fill a currency vacuum.

The CJ references distinguish die varieties across the three-year run, with differences in star counts and details that collectors still actively chase.