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Complete
catalog of Uruguayan coins since 1840 to the present,
with wide numismatic and historical information.
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| New Uruguayan
coins with animals of the wild autochthonous fauna. |
The
Uruguay is a Republic of scarce territorial extension, located
in the southern tip of the American continent. Their life like
independent country is near to the bicentennial. In 1840, hardly
one decade after the beginning of the construction of the national
State, they are coined in Montevideo the first coins with denomination
"República Oriental del Uruguay". In spite of
lacking mining tradition and not to have developed the infrastructures
to possess national mint, equally, from that moment to the present,
Uruguay accumulated a significant numismatic acquis. With the
desire to diffuse that rich patrimony and to share with collectors
and investigators all the information that can meet in the matter,
from 2005 is built in Internet the site "Monedas de la República
Oriental del Uruguay". In this article the diverse sections
are described so that the visitors can familiarize with the available
material.
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(CATALOG
BY YEARS) For the historical interest of the numismatic study,
the first section and classification method of the catalog is
for date. Here images and details of two hundreds of pieces of
legal course are exposed, with denomination "República
Oriental del Uruguay", coined from 1840 to the present, ordered
by the four monetary signs used in the country (Strong Peso, Peso,
New Peso and Uruguayan Peso). With special relevance on the visual
aspects, the descriptive record of each piece, besides presenting
obverse and reverse in detail of great size, has a second couple
of images in relative real scale to the other of the catalog and
with the indication of the turn. Module, weight, mint, metal,
emission, period of circulation and the pertinent observations
are also pointed out. Among the most interesting pieces for the
visitor stand out the “Cinquiño”, the “Sun
of Tail”, the “Peso of Siege”, the “Peso
of Shipwreck”, the “Silver Cougar”, all the
series of the popular “Vintén”, the “Chanchita”
of silver, the “Gaucho" of silver, etc.
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(SERIES)
Also the pieces are not exemplary isolated. It was important
to include a space to value them in their design context and
scale. The images were ordered this way in cones or monetary
series that allow a group perspective.
(ESSAYS)
Separated from the coins of legal course, this section presents
the essays, trials and special issues that accompanied each process
of coinage. They stand out pieces as the "40 Reales"
of 1840, the "Doubloon of Gold" of 1870 and the "Artigas"
of Michelena.
(VALUES)
To facilitate the search, a listing was also included, ordered
by the monetary signs and the facial values of the pieces, what
allows another quick access to the same ones.
(METALS)
In this section information is included about the different metals,
its characteristics, etymology and historical and economic importance,
as well as a classification of the Uruguayan pieces divided by
the metals in that they were coined.
(MINTS)
To collaborate in the identification task, we incorporate a listing
of Official Mints hired by Uruguay, with their marks in great
size for their easy appreciation. This page connects with the
websites of the Mints and with the respective Uruguayan pieces
that they coined.
(VARIANTS)
For many of the monetary issues several stamps have been used,
that have subtle differences, in other cases it has varied the
turn of the pieces or smaller changes have appeared for the style.
Discussions sometimes appear about the value of these variants,
but anyway in this section all the well-known and reported are
listed.
(UNCOINED)
Becoming historical it has impeded many times that, coinages decreed
by Law, were taken to term. Here all the cases are listed, linked
to their respective norm. The essays are not included, since these,
at least, were able to be materialized beyond that written.
(TOPICS)
One of the main objectives of the site is establish a strong knot
of knowledge among each coin and the circumstances represented
in it. In each piece, information of the elements that compose
it is included, of the artists that developed those images and
a base of information that it improves the appreciation of the
same ones. In this section all those varied thematics are ordered.
(LAWS)
In Uruguay, for constitutional command, is the Legislative Power
who has the exclusive competition of the decision of coining coins.
Having present this, the site has an appendix with the laws that
created each one of our coins. These texts, among laws, ordinances
and resolutions, have an important value since they collaborate
to locate the pieces in their historical and political context,
to know the reasons of their coinage, of their circulation retirement
and until the destination of the dividends that they generated.
(GLOSARY)
Not all who visit the site should be numismatist experts. For
them, a glossary was included with terms, among technicians, idioms
and local denominations. In definitive, the intention is that
until a neophyte it finishes with a clear scene from our monetary
when concluding his visit.
(LINKS)
It
can also meet a page with links to the Issuing Banks, to the Official
Mints with those that Uruguay has operated, to national coins
catalogs of other countries, with similar characteristic to this,
to national portals and numerous friend site with the same interest
in shared the numismatist.
(BIBLIOGRAPHY)
For those who want to know more about the Uruguayan numismatist,
we mention multiple books and printed, national and international
publications, that have been support and inspiration for the development
of the site.
We
hope the site will be interesting and help to order and to value
the pieces of collectors. We will receive with pleasure the comments,
critical and explanations. For they also find a connection to
our e-mail. We care the diffusion of the national patrimony a
lot. We want to make it in the right way and the trial of our
visitors confirm or correct our intentions. |
