5 Centavos

Peru shifted this denomination to brass during World War II as silver and cupronickel supplies were redirected or constrained by wartime materials demands across Latin America — a pattern seen in a dozen countries simultaneously. The 1945 introduction coincided with Peru's late entry into the war on the Allied side, a largely symbolic declaration made in February of that year to secure postwar international standing.

The type ran twenty years without design change, a period that saw Peru's sol eroded by persistent inflation throughout the 1950s.