Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America between Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. It was part of the Viceroyalty of Rio de Plata and became independent in 1811. Its first ruler was president De Francia who ordered all whites to intermarry with native tribes or blacks to create a homogeneous mestizo population. A later leader, Solano Lopez, led Paraguay into the disastrous Paraguayan War (also known as the War of the Triple Alliance) between 1864 and 1870. Fighting Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, Solano Lopez aimed to gain access to the Atlantic Ocean through Rio de Plata but ended losing an estimated half of the population and almost all males of adult ages, and losing territory to Brazil and Argentina. In 1930, Paraguay fought the Chaco War against Bolivia and won a territorial dispute in its favour.
From 1954 until 1989 Paraguay was led by Alfredo Stroessner, a German-descent military dictator who ran a very efficient and oppressive regime. Devoutly anti-communist, he secured the support of the USA during the Cold War. Stroessner aas ousted by a coup in 1989 and Paraguay developed into a democracy since then. Soybeans are an important export product and the economy has been growing steadily over the last decades, but still falls behind its neighbours in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay.
Paraguay switched from the Colonial Real to Argentine Real in 1813, only to introduce its own Real in 1845. In 1856, the Peso was introduced worth 8 Reales. A bit later this Peso was pegged to 5 French Francs, equal to most Pesos in Latin America. In 1874, the Peso was decimalised to 100 Centavos. From 1900, the Peso gradually lost value and coins were only made in base metal and even aluminium in 1938. In 1944, the Guaraní - named after the local native tribe - replaced the Peso at a rate of 100 to 1. The Guaraní also fell in value until it was pegged to USD at a rate of 126 Guaraníes in 1960. The peg collapsed in 1982 and by 1993 there were 1700 Guaraníes in a USD. The last decade the Paraguayan currency has been stable around 5000 per Dollar, and plans exist for a Nuevo Guaraní dropping 3 zeros but this has not been implemented to date. The symbol for Guaraní is ₲ or PYG.
Modern Paraguayan coins are fairly easy to get, especially in some low cost uncirculated sets. The 1953 series can also be found here and there. The coins from the interwar period are a lot more difficult to get, and the few types from the 19th century are extremely hard to find.
World coins chat: Paraguay
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Get ready to impress your friends with this trivia. One of Paraguay's greatest exports is hydroelectricity - the country is blessed with many large rivers, a low domestic demand for electricity, and power-hungry neighbours. This particular coin depicts the Acaray Dam, which apparently supplies the country with 3% of its electricity, but Paraguay is best known for the Itaipu Dam, built jointly with Brazil, which was the world's largest hydroelectric dam before the Chinese built their Three Gorges Dam. In 2013 the Itaipu generated 75% of Paraguay's electrical needs and 17% of Brazil's - and remember that Brazil is a really enormous country. The dam blocks the Paraná River, the world's 8th-largest river.
Besides that, this is my entire Paraguayan collection - it's true, Paraguay is one of the more difficult countries to add to your collection, and one of the hardest in South America (I would only rank Suriname as more difficult).
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