50 Centimos Transitional Coinage

Peru's monetary system was in open conflict with itself in 1858. The country was mid-transition from the old Spanish colonial real system to a decimal structure, and this 50 centimos piece belongs to that awkward interregnum — technically decimal in denomination but produced at weights and fineness calibrated to ease acceptance alongside the reales still circulating in commerce. The Lima mint had been operating under chronic supply pressures, and silver from the Cerro de Pasco mines was increasingly being siphoned toward export rather than coinage.

KM#178 is short-lived by design. Full decimalization rendered transitional types obsolete within a few years.