20 Centésimos de Real

Uruguay's earliest republican copper issues were struck not in Montevideo but contracted out to foreign mints — this series was produced in Paris, a common arrangement for newly independent Latin American states lacking domestic minting infrastructure. The young republic had only formally consolidated independence from Brazil in 1828, and by 1840 was already torn by the Guerra Grande, the brutal civil conflict between Blancos and Colorados that drew in Argentine and Brazilian intervention and would grind on until 1851. That coins were being struck and circulated at all during this period is itself notable.

The multiple catalog references reflect genuine die varieties across the emission years, not duplicate listings.