Currency of Uruguay and fineness was retained, but the denomination was changed to "peso fuerte", with proposed coins of 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 peso fuerte in silver, and 2, 4, 8, and 16 pesos fuertes in gold. Uruguay's first postage stamps appeared in October 1856 for use on mail coach routes operated by Anastasio Lapido; the denominations were 60 and 80 centavos and 1 real (= 120 centavos). A second series followed in March 1858 in denominations of 120, 180, and 240 centavos (centésimos). Regular government stamps appeared in July 1859 in denominations of 60, 80, 100, 120, 180, and 240 centésimos.
Cross of Gold speech caused by the Napoleonic Wars caused United States gold coins to be worth more as bullion than as money, and they vanished from circulation. Governmental response to this shortage was hampered by the fact that officials did not clearly understand what had happened. In 1830, Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham proposed adjusting the ratio between gold and silver in US currency to 15.8:1, which had for some time been the ratio in Europe. It was not until 1834 that Congress acted, changing the gold/silver ratio to 16.002:1. This was close enough to the market value to make it uneconomic to