DECIMO: COIN OF ARGENTINA
1 decimo, 1823: United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Buenos Aires Province, Argentina)
Coin of the Buenos Aires Province (modern Argentina) as part of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata — South American state entity that existed during 1810-1816 and 1820-1835 on territories of modern Paraguay, parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia and Brazil.
BUENOS AYRES: Buenos Aires.
1823: with this date, two types of coins were issued — with the Coin and Medal orientations of the reverse relative to the obverse (the specimen presented in the photo is of the "Coin Alignment" type).
UN DECIMO: one decimo.
The coat of arms of the Argentine Republic or Argentine shield (Spanish "Escudo de la República Argentina"): a figure, in which at the top we find the gold-yellowed Sun of May (national symbol of Argentina and Uruguay, appearing on both of their flags). Was established in its current form in 1944, but has its origins in the seal of the General Constituent Assembly of 1813.
Soho Mint (United Kingdom).
It is interesting: on the Internet you can find information that the Argentine coin presented here received a new lease of life in 1831 — due to a shortage of its own currency, a large batch of decimos of Buenos Aires was bought and put into circulation in neighboring Uruguay. Unfortunately, I could not verify this information exactly.
- Copper: 23 mm - 6.64 g
- Reference price: 13$
COIN DECIMO — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- ARGENTINA (Buenos Aires Province of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, 1822-1823): decimo = 1/10 real
- REPUBLIC OF CHILE (1851-1894): decimo = 1/10 peso
- COLOMBIA (Republic of New Granada + Granadine Confederation + United States of Colombia, 1847-1878): decimo = 1/10 real (since 1853: 1/10 peso)
- REPUBLIC OF ECUADOR (1884-1916): decimo = 1/10 sucre
DECIMO as coin name.
Decimo (Spanish "Décimo") — historical coin issued by some Spanish-speaking countries of South America in the 19th century and at the very beginning of the 20th century. We are talking about Argentina (or rather, Buenos Aires Province), Ecuador, Colombia and Chile.
Argentina. The first decimo coins appeared precisely on the territory of modern Argentina, namely: they were issued by Buenos Aires Province. Copper decimos with the specified issuer "Buenos Ayres" were minted in 1822-1823. They were 1/10 of the real of this province.
Colombia. Following Argentina, Colombia issued the first decimos ("decimo de real") in 1847. Since 1853, when the peso was introduced instead of the real, the name of the coin was indicated simply as "decimo".
Chile. Chilean decimos (1/2 and 1: "medio decimo" and "un decimo") were minted from silver in 1851-1894. They were a tenth of the local peso.
Ecuador. The decimo of Ecuador was minted during 1884-1916 in three denominations: "½ decimo de sucre", "un decimo de sucre" and "dos decimos de sucre" (half, one and two Ecuadorian decimos).
Some numismatic sources also add Panama to this list with its 1/10 balboa coin (or 10 centésimo), — "Un décimo de balboa" in Spanish. However, Panamanian decimos were never issued, and the aforementioned coin should be considered precisely as a fractional value of the main currency — a tenth of a balboa (not as a separate denomination). Although... the above-mentioned types of decimo coin can also to some extent only tentatively be called an independent denomination: almost all of them are a literal direct indication of the equality of the tenth part of the main currency — real, peso, sucre...
The name of the coin decimo literally means a tenth — 1/10 of the corresponding monetary unit. A related coin is the decime of France, Switzerland (canton of Geneva) and Monaco.
