20 Centésimos

Uruguay's 1994 coinage program followed a decade of severe monetary instability — the country had replaced its old peso with the nuevo peso in 1975 at a rate of 1,000 to 1, and by the early 1990s inflation had eroded even those units badly enough to require periodic redenomination of circulating coin types. Stainless steel was adopted for the smaller denominations largely on cost grounds, as the Banco Central sought to extend die life and reduce replacement frequency during a period of high circulation turnover.