Peso coinage, found in areas of former Spanish influence and control, offers a wealth of opportunity for the adventurous world coin collector.
One can currently travel through Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Uruguay and pay using only pesos. Though the nations don't share a common currency, their currencies share a common name.
The list of the countries that once used the peso denomination is even longer, a veritable map of Central and South America. Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain and Venezuela all, at one time, issued peso-denominated coinage.
Creating a collection of peso coinage from each issuing country, past or present, could prove to be an exciting and educational endeavor.
The genesis of all pesos is the Spanish piece of eight, according to Richard G. Doty in The MacMillan Encyclopedic Dictionary of Numismatics. The real was the basic unit, with the piece of eight also being known as the 8-real coin. "While peso was used in popular parlance for the Piece of Eight minted in Spain and its colonies, the Spanish and their early national successors in Latin America did not usually put the word on their coins, although it does appear in the official documents of the period," Doty writes.
Doty credits the introduction of the peso as an actual, official designation on a coin to "another colonial successor state," the United States of America.
The United States based its coinage on the piece of eight, but expressed the value as a single unit (the dollar) instead of as a multiple of another, Doty writes, and also as part of a system divisible by 10. The decimal system was "far more comprehensible than the old arrangement of multiplying and dividing by eights," according to Doty, and so, in the mid-19th century, Latin America and Spain itself began to move toward a decimal system.
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Images courtesy of HeritageAuctions.com. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (written as Cristobal Colon in Spanish) appears on some of El Salvador's first peso coinage. Within a few decades, the currency would be named the colon in his honor.
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Spanish roots
In Spain this new coinage was called a peseta, and in Latin America it was known as the peso ("peso" is the Spanish word for weight).
A hybrid system where 10 reales equaled one peso saw minimal use and was dropped for the simple peso unit, in which 100 centavos or centimos equaled 1 peso.
Various countries made the switch to the decimal system at various times, and those nations that were on systems based on pesos didn't all immediately issue peso coinage. In some cases, the fractional centavos and centimos were sufficient for more than 50 years before a nation's first peso coinage was issued.
Spain was the first to issue pesos or, in its case, pesetas.
According to the Coin World Almanac, 2000 edition, in 1809, a French occupation coinage was introduced – "en Barcelona peseta" – which was "struck in three silver and one gold denominations, which provided important future direction for Spain's monetary development."
This is the provincial coinage, which is known for Barcelona, Gerona, Tarragona and Tortosa, according to the Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, by Chester Krause and Clifford Mishler. Coins in various denominations were issued from 1808, according to the catalog, through 1812. These provincial coins are the precursor to the pesetas issued under the decimal system.
Though Spain adopted the decimal system in 1850, the system was real-based until 1865 and escudo-based (escudos were gold coins) until 1869, when the peso was inaugurated. All 1869 peso coinage is rare and expensive. For instance, the silver 5-peseta coin, with a mintage of 100 pieces, is cataloged by Krause and Mishler for $25,000, and that price was determined in the fourth edition, released in 2004.
Gold pesos of multiple denominations (10-, 20- and 25-peso coins) followed in 1878, 1889 and 1875, respectively.
Among the most interesting of peseta issues are those from Charles VII, the grandson of a pretender to the throne. Charles VII issued his own "coinage" for what he believed was the true empire; they were struck at the Brussels Mint.
Spain remained on the peseta system until the 2002 adoption of the euro currency.
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FIRST PESO COINAGE outside of Spain was issued in 1817 for the newly independent Chilean Republic.
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Across the globe
The peso first to take root outside of Spain began in 1817 in the newly independent Chilean Republic, which issued peso-denominated silver coins with CHILE INDEPENDENTIA on the obverse of the coins. The series persisted through 1834, but Chile didn't issue a decimal peso of 100 centavos until 1851.
In 1837, Colombia, then part of what was known as Nueva Granada, issued gold pesos.
Uruguay issued pesos fuerte, or "strong pesos," in 1844, and Costa Rica followed with its first peso coinage in 1850.
The acceptance and use of the peso as a unit of currency accelerated during the second half of the 19th century. Guatemala came aboard in 1859, making its first of several ill-fated attempts at a peso coinage. Subsequent unsuccessful attempts were in 1859, 1869 and 1870 (all met with public criticism), but the 1881 decimalization finally took hold.
Mexico's first peso made its debut in 1866. In 1867, Paraguay issued gold 4-peso fuerte amid war, and in 1870 Cuba issued a pattern peso, a preview of peso coinage that was adopted in 1872.
Honduras released its first peso coinage in 1871, though full-scale decimalization didn't come until 10 years later, 1881. Incidentally, Argentina underwent decimalization and launched its peso coinage also in 1881.
El Salvador chose an auspicious year – 1892 – to issue its first peso coinage, some of which happened to depict Christopher Columbus (known as Cristobal Colon). Within a few decades, El Salvador's unit of currency became the colon, or colones, under the 1925 currency reform.
After being on a peso system for 53 years (though issuing only coins denominated in centavos or centisimos), the Dominican Republic issued its first peso-denominated coinage in 1897. The nation still uses the peso today.
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THE PESO'S REACH extended all the way to the Philippines, as evidenced by this 1947 commemorative 1-peso depicting Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
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The silver peso of 1895 issued by the Spanish colonial power and equal to five Spanish pesetas is the first and only peso coinage of Puerto Rico. It was issued shortly before the United States claimed Puerto Rico from Spain in 1898 after winning the Spanish-American War.
The expansion of the peso is inextricably linked to Spanish colonial fortunes throughout the world. The Spanish Empire also stretched far and wide, and thus it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that peso coinage was issued in places like the far-away Spanish possession of the Philippine Islands. The Philippines issued its first peso coinage in the 1860s. The denomination remained in use through the United States' administration of the islands, through occupation during World War II and until 1967, long after it received independence in 1946. In 1967 the name of the denomination was changed to "piso" but the roots of the denomination still remain in the peso.
While most of the turmoil and tussle over the Spanish Empire had settled by the close of the 19th century, that didn't stop the peso's expansion.
The reform of 1965 in Bolivia created the new denomination of pesos bolivianos (with one equal to 100 centavos). This coinage ended in 1979, making it one of the shortest-lived "peso" coinages.
After a few decades of pressure, Spain granted Equatorial Guinea independence in 1969. Equatorial Guinea issued peseta coinage until 1975, when it adopted the ekuele.
Guinea-Bissau, a Portuguese colony until 1973, adopted the peso upon decimalization in 1977.
Production begins
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Images courtesy of HeritageAuctions.com. THE PESO was short-lived in Puerto Rico. Its first issue came in 1895, and the denomination didn't survive when the United States took control of the island three years later.
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Collecting pesos
A world of options exists for the collector of peso coinage. Where to begin?
Perhaps the simplest option it to collect one piece from each issuing nation. Silver and gold issues are known for most issuers.
Cuba's peso coinage provides an interesting option. Many collector coins have been issued, especially in multiple peso denominations, and in 1994 Cuba began issuing pesos convertibles, requiring tourists to exchange hard currency for them.
Guinea-Bissau issued a series of coins under the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization in 1977. These 1977 coins variously depict plants and trees.
Argentina offers a wealth of peso types. In the face of rampant inflation since the 1970s, Argentina's currency underwent several upheavals (to the new peso in 1970 and to the pesos Argentinos in 1983) before the nation jettisoned peso-denominated coinage for austral currency in 1985. In 1992, Argentina switched from the austral back to the peso, returning to its monetary roots.
Chile's peso coinage persisted until a currency reform in 1962 that eliminated pesos; the pesos were replaced with escudos, which lasted until the return to pesos in 1975.
Uruguay's peso coinage has undergone some changes due to inflation (the introduction of the nuevo peso, or new peso, in 1975, and the peso Uruguaya in 1994 among them), but the peso denomination remains in use today.
Peso coinage in what is now Colombia was issued under several controlling nations. The first, a gold peso in 1837, was issued under the independent Nueva Granada. After subsequent issues, that coinage was followed by the 1859 to 1862 peso coinage of the Granadine Confederation (Confederacion Granadina).
In 1862, the United States of Colombia (Estados Unidos de Colombiae) issued peso coinage. In 1886, Colombia became the Republic of Colombia, which also issued peso coinage through the early 20th century. After a hiatus, peso coinage returned to Colombia in the 1960s.
Six countries still circulate the peso: Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Uruguay.
You might consider a collection of the "first" pesos from each nation, or you could narrow it to just peso coins from one nation.
In Mexico, for example, you could choose the first peso, issued by Maximilian in 1866. That year, .903 fine silver coins were struck at the Mexico City Mint and at the San Luis Potosi Mint, with .875 fine gold 20-peso coins issued from the Mexico City Mint. Silver pesos were struck at numerous mints, including Chihuahua, Culiacan, Durango, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Mexico City, Oaxaca, San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. A type set of mints would make a nice display.
No longer around
An interesting collection of peso coinage would be from nations that have dropped the denomination.
In Guatemala, the peso was replaced by the quetzal in 1926. The Philippines pesos would be candidates for such a collection, since that nation no longer uses the peso.
Silver and gold peso and multiple-peso coinage was issued in Honduras through the early to mid-1920s, but the reform coinage of 1931 eliminated the peso in favor of the lempira, the current currency unit.
Costa Rica replaced the peso with the colon in 1896, though no peso-denominated coins had been struck since the 10-peso gold coin of 1876 (other pesos, in 1-, 2- and 5-peso denominations, were also struck in gold).
Peru's peseta-denominated silver coinage made its debut in 1880, but it had a short life, with no more issued after 1883.
The 1889 silver peso is the only crown-sized silver peso from Paraguay. A new system setting 100 centimos equivalent to 1 guarani replaced pesos in 1944.
Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau saw very short periods of peso coinage. Equatorial Guinea replaced its peso coinage in 1975. Guinea-Bissau replaced its peso system in 1997.
A few nations also adopted a peso-based system but never issued any peso-denominated coinage. All of their coinage was minor, fractional coinage.
Venezuela is one nation that, though it used a peso-based monetary system from 1811 until 1874, issued no peso-denominated coins (only centavos). A silver 10-real coin, which was equivalent to a peso, was issued in 1863, but it is extremely scarce today, as most of its mintage is believed to have been melted.
Nicaragua, too, adopted the peso, in 1880, but issued only centavo-denominated coinage. In 1912, Nicaragua adopted the cordoba before any peso-denominated coins were issued.
