2 Reales Silver 'Gross Planchet' Pattern

Paraguay in 1869 was a nation in ruins. The War of the Triple Alliance — fought against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay simultaneously — had by that point killed an estimated 60 to 70 percent of the country's entire population, including the vast majority of adult men. Francisco Solano López died in March of that year at Cerro Corá, effectively ending the war and the Paraguayan state as it had existed.

This pattern was struck amid that collapse, part of an abortive attempt to establish postwar monetary infrastructure before any functioning government had fully reconstituted itself. The thicker planchet variant distinguishes it from the standard pattern issues of the same type catalogued under the same postwar emergency coinage program.