World coins chat: Uruguay

Uruguay's history has been marked by its location at the frontier of Spanish and Portuguese America. The area was called "Banda Oriental", east of the Uruguay river and north of River Plate. It was part of the Viceroyalty of Rio de Plata until Jose Artigas, Uruguay's national hero, beat a Spanish loyalist force in 1811. Disagreeing with the centralists in Buenos Aires, Artigas attempted to achieve full independence for Uruguay but Portuguese Brazil annexed it as the Cisplatine Province in 1816. Brazil became independent in 1822, upon which a revolt started in Uruguay that eventually led to its independence in 1828. Two rivalling political parties, the Colorados and the Blancos, fought a long civil war known as La Grande Guerra between 1839 and 1852.

Around the turn of the century, Uruguay enjoyed a large influx of Spanish and Italian immigrants that contributed to economic growth. However, from the early 20th century, the political situation became more volatile with old rivalries causing renewed violence. By the 1950's, as a result of sharp economic decline, social unrest led to the military taking power. Democracy was not fully restored until the end of the 1980's. Over the last decades, Uruguay enjoyed steady growth and Montevideo is regarded as the best city to live in South America. It is known for its liberal attitude, somewhat comparable to Chile.

Uruguay used the Spanish Real and subsequently the Rio Plata Real until the annexation by Brazil. After independence, the Peso, also known as Patacón, was introduced. In Portuguese the 960 Reis and 8 Real coins were known as Patacão (hence the Macao Pataca which is based on Mexican Pesos used in Asia). This Uruguayan Peso was subdivided in 8 Reales of each 100 Centésimos de Real. The Uruguayan Peso Patacón was worth a tiny bit more than a US Dollar.

Between 1854 and 1856, laws were passed to reform the currency to the Real with a gold Escudo worth 10 Reales and 100 Centésimos. Some copper coins in this currency were issued but are very rare.

In 1856, the Patacón was adjusted from 800 to 960 Centésimos, buy only copper coins of 10, 20 and 40 centésimos were issued, despite plans for silver and gold coin series.

In 1863, another currency reform was put in place where 10 Pesos was worth a gold Doblón and 1 Peso was 100 Centésimos instead of 960 or 1000 Centésimos de Real. Bronze coins worth 1, 2 & 4 Centésimos were minted in Birmingham and Paris for this currency. This Peso was equal to the Mexican Peso and a US Dollar was worth 0$96 and British Pound 4$70 in Uruguayan currency.

In 1875 the Uruguayan Peso was pegged to 5 French Francs of the Latin Monetary Union, effectively a 10% devaluation of the old Peso. Silver coins were produced in line with the LMU, with 20 centavos having the same specifications as the French Franc.

In 1896 Uruguay adopted the gold standard which put the Peso at US$ 1.03, 4s3d sterling or 5.361 Francs. This standard was abandoned in 1914, after which the Uruguayan Peso even rose in value compared to USD (0.78 Pesos) before crashing in 1921 to 1.70 Pesos, but stabilized to pre-war levels in 1925. From 1931 devaluations started again until the Peso was fixed to 12.06 French Francs in 1933 (roughly equal to 2.40 pre-war French Francs or half a US Dollar). The silver content of coins was lowered and after WW2 no silver was used anymore.

The hard economic times reflected on Uruguay's currency after the war, caused by decreasing demand for agricultural products from Uruguay. In 1960 there were 7.4 Pesos/$, in 1965 69.2/$, in 1967 200/$ and in 1973 1500/$ after which the Nuevo Peso replaced the old one for 1000 to 1.

The Nuevo Peso lasted for 20 years. In 1980 there were 9.16 N$/$, in 1988 451 N$/$ and by 1993 around 3000 N$/$. The Peso Uruguayo replaced the Nuevo Peso at a rate of 1000 to 1 and followed the depreciation up to 35 UYU during the Argentine financial crisis, but started to recover from then to as strong as 19 UYU per Dollar in 2008, something Uruguayans were completely not used to. Currently it trades around 25 UYU per Dollar.

Uruguayan coins from the 1930's and 40's are well-known for their beautiful design, especially the 1942 silver Peso featuring the jaguar. This design has been reused on the current 10 Pesos bi-metallic coin. Uruguayan coins are not that common in bargain bins but they do end up in low price auctions regularly. The high rate of inflation produced many types, some of which have circulated only shortly and are actually a bit difficult to find.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/uruguay-1.html

Thank you for this thread!

Yes, it's a fantastic article. Lots of good work by Jokinen!

I am a fan and collector of Uruguay coins too.

The author mentions Morlon's Jaguar with sun rays, which indeed is one of my favorite coins from any where.

The other 20th century Paris minted coins are attractive too. Art Deco treasure!

The 1930 centennial types with Turin's seated Liberty and wheat ears are striking, as is Lucien Bazor's 5 peso gold!

The variety of mints is another attraction.

here is some more discussion if Uruguay's coins

These jokinens work really stand the test of time :)