1936 Peru Olympic Commemorative

Peru's 1936 Olympic commemorative coin was minted to celebrate its athletes at the Berlin Games, a bold move for a country thousands of miles away.

Struck in .900 fine silver, it features a discus thrower on the obverse, drawing from classical Greek motifs while nodding to Peru's own athletic heritage. The reverse shows the Peruvian coat of arms, complete with the vicuña and cinchona tree, all on a planchet weighing about 10 grams. Records from the Lima Mint are spotty, but we know production was limited, possibly to a few thousand pieces, though exact figures burned in an archive fire decades ago.

I've handled these over the years, and they're often mistaken for European issues, which always makes me chuckle—Peru crashing the German party with its own silver souvenir.