5 Pesos Fuertes Gold Pattern

Paraguay in 1873 was a gutted nation. The War of the Triple Alliance had ended four years earlier, leaving an estimated 60–70% of the male population dead and the country under Brazilian military occupation. This pattern was struck during the fitful reconstruction period, when the postwar government was attempting to establish functioning monetary institutions almost from scratch — a project complicated by the fact that there was barely an economy left to serve.

As a pattern, it was never adopted for circulation. The denomination itself reflects ambitions the treasury could not back.