1954 Peru 20-centavos commem

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A 1954 Peruvian 20-centavo piece, struck in Lima of brass, 24mm in diameter and weighing 3.7g. The high-value in a three-member 1954 commemorative coin series that included a 5-, 10- and this 20-centavo, these special coins did not interrupt Peru’s regular issues, which continued on as usual, also with 1954 dates.

This small piece, of humble brass, is as practical (by reputation, anyway) as the man it celebrates, Ramón Castilla.

The inscription “Libertador Mariscal Castilla”—he was a military man between his terms as president—is an obverse clue to this little coin’s commemorative purpose, but only a mild one. After all, Liberators make frequent appearances on South America’s circulating coinage.

But 1954 had been designated Castilla’s “year” (and centennial of the 1854 Liberal Revolution that he had figured so prominently in) so contemporary Peruvians would have known instantly what this coin was about.

The coin’s reverse—without words, using only a broken chain and a lit torch—celebrates 1854’s signal achievement of Castilla, of the Liberal Revolution, and of Peru: the abolishment of slavery.

It would be more than a decade (1865) before the U.S. could make the same claim, and some 35 years (1889) before Brazil could match it.

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