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

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

Since the XVIII Century and well into the XIX Century, the region of Los Altos in the westernpart of Guatemala sought independence from the State of Guatemala. This region was inhabitedby cachikel Indians and Spanish descendants. These peoples resented the strict dominanceimposed on them by the powerful traders located in Guatemala City, and the lack of adequateinfrastructure 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 CentralAmerican Federation was formed in 1824, no decision was adopted to accept such a request. In1838, the State of Guatemala was under political chaos, and the Los Altos peoples decided tosecede and create its own State. Later in that year, the Central American Congress approvedthe Los Altos request to become a full member of the Federation.

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

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

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

Roberto Jovel has conducted independent research on the numismatic history of his homecountry - El Salvador - and the neighboring Central American countries, and has publishedextensively 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 wellas 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 thebooks via regular or special postage. Quotation on book price and postage may be obtained bywriting to the following email address: clasicosroxsil@yahoo.es.

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