NEW BOOK: NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF LOS ALTOS

NUMISMATIC HISTORY OF THE STATE OF LOS ALTOS IN THE CENTRAL AMERICAN FEDERATION, 1838-1840
Roberto Jovel

A new, bilingual, English/Spanish book on the numismatics of the short-lived State of Los Altos in the Central American Federation is now available. It describes medals and a number of counter stamped coins issued by the State of Los Altos, and the historical, political, economic and social conditions that prevailed at the time.

Since the XVIII Century and well into the XIX Century, the region of Los Altos in the western part of Guatemala sought independence from the State of Guatemala. This region was inhabited by cachikel Indians and Spanish descendants. These peoples resented the strict dominance imposed on them by the powerful traders located in Guatemala City, and the lack of adequate infrastructure to transport and export their products abroad. Just before independence in 1821-23, Los Altos formally requested recognition as a separate political entity. When the Central American Federation was formed in 1824, no decision was adopted to accept such a request. In 1838, the State of Guatemala was under political chaos, and the Los Altos peoples decided to secede and create its own State. Later in that year, the Central American Congress approved the Los Altos request to become a full member of the Federation.

Since then, the Los Altos government faced problems related to illegitimate Silver coinage, and decided to counterstamp those that were deemed to be legitimate, to assure its inhabitants and facilitate local and international trade. Many Silver coins from Latin America - including those minted under the Spanish Colony as well as those issued by independent republics - were counter stamped. In addition, in 1838 Los Altos sent a military Division to assist Guatemala and the Central American Federation in suppressing an uprising by the indigenous leader Rafael Carrera. The Los Altos Division was instrumental in defeating the Carrera rebels, and its members were distinguished with special military honor medals for their success. This military medal has only recently been identified together with the fact that they were produced in both Gold and Silver.

In January 1840, the State of Guatemala sent its army to Los Altos and recovered such territory to Guatemalan sovereignty. Several times afterwards the Los Altos peoples unsuccessfully tried to regain their independence, to no avail.

This book is in fact an expansion and updating of a chapter on the Los Altos counterstamps that was included by the Author in a book issued in 2001 under the title of Necessity Coinage of Guatemala, which even today is very much used to identify both Guatemalan and Los Altos necessity Silver coins. The expanded and updated information collected by the Author in recent years has enabled the production of this new book which, to facilitate the dissemination of its contents, has been published in both Spanish and English. Due to the great interest in Central American coinage in many parts of the world, it is believed that this book may become a widely used numismatic reference.

Roberto Jovel has conducted independent research on the numismatic history of his home country - El Salvador - and the neighboring Central American countries, and has published extensively on its findings over the past 25 years. His more common books include the three-volume Numismatic History of El Salvador, from Spanish Colonial times to the present, as well as other books and articles on the numismatics of neighboring countries.

The new book may be obtained from Librería Clásicos Roxsil in El Salvador that can send the books via regular or special postage. Quotation on book price and postage may be obtained by writing to the following email address: clasicosroxsil@yahoo.es.

Roberto Jovel may be contacted through his email address rjovel@jovel.org.

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