20 Centavos

1891 was the year of Chile's civil war, a brief but brutal conflict in which Congressional forces overthrew President José Manuel Balmaceda. The war disrupted government operations substantially, and Balmaceda's faction ultimately lost; he took his own life in September of that year. Coinage continued under the strain, but attribution of specific issues to one administrative authority or the other is genuinely complicated for this period.

The .200 fineness marks a pronounced debasement from earlier Chilean silver coinage, reflecting chronic fiscal pressure that preceded the civil war by years.