Uruguay's earliest copper coinage was struck in Montevideo following independence but before the country had established a functioning national mint — these pieces were contracted out to foreign facilities, with the 1857 issue produced in Birmingham. The centésimo decimal system adopted in the 1850s was itself short-lived; within two decades Uruguay had restructured its monetary framework entirely around the peso and centésimo, rendering the "real" subdivision obsolete almost as soon as it was formalized in copper.
Uruguay's earliest copper coinage was struck in Montevideo following independence but before the country had established a functioning national mint — these pieces were contracted out to foreign facilities, with the 1857 issue produced in Birmingham. The centésimo decimal system adopted in the 1850s was itself short-lived; within two decades Uruguay had restructured its monetary framework entirely around the peso and centésimo, rendering the "real" subdivision obsolete almost as soon as it was formalized in copper.