History

The peso replaced the Central American Republic real

Central American Republic real

The real was the currency of the Federal Republic of Central America from 1824. Sixteen silver reales equaled one gold escudo. The Central American Republic's real replaced the Spanish colonial real at par and continued to circulate and be issued after the constituent states left the Central...

, with 1 peso = 8 reales. In 1869, the centavo was introduced, worth one hundredth of a peso, but the real continued to be produced until 1912, when Guatemala fully decimalized. In 1870, the peso was pegged to the French franc

French franc

The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...

 at a rate of 1 peso = 5 francs. However, the peg was suspended in 1895 and the peso's value fell considerably. The peso was replaced by the quetzal

Guatemalan quetzal

The quetzal is the currency of Guatemala. It is named after the national bird of Guatemala, the Resplendent Quetzal. In ancient Mayan culture, the quetzal bird's tail feathers were used as currency. It is divided into 100 cents, called centavos in standard Spanish or lenes in Guatemalan slang...

in 1925.

Coins

Silver coins were initially issued in denominations of ¼, ½, 1, 2 and 4 reales and 1 peso, whilst gold coins were issued in denominations of 4 reales, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 pesos. With the introduction of the centavo in 1869 came denominations of 1, 25 and 50 centavos, 5, 10 and 20 pesos. 5 and 10 centavos coins were added in 1881.

Following the suspension of the peso's peg to the French franc, the issuance of silver coins ceased in 1900 as the currencies value fell. Between 1915 and 1923, provisional coins were issued, in denominations of 12½ and 25 centavos in 1915, and 50 centavos in 1922, and 1 and 5 pesos in 1923.