Constitution

Reverse

Text in five lines at center, surrounded by wreath, with tie ribbon below.

Script: Latin

Lettering:
PRO
MULGADA Y
JURADA EN
20. Ꟈ ABRIL
Ꟈ 1828

Unabridged legend: Promulgada y Jurada en 20 de abril de 1828

Translation: Promulgated and sworn on April 20th., 1828

Engraver: Cayetano Viduarre

Designer: Atanasio Dávalos Ojeda

Edge

Ornamented

Comment

Constitution of 1828 It can be considered the founding Constitution, it reconciled liberal ideas with the circumstances that the country was experiencing, which the architects of the Magna Carta of 1823 did not notice, who strangely were the same, with the exception of José Faustino Sánchez Carrión, who died in 1825 (Ramos 2018: 35, 36). However, it contained the embryo of its own destruction, because it indicated that it should be reviewed after five years, a terrible decision in a country of legislative manias and constitutional voracity (Ramos 2018: 45). It was sanctioned by the Constituent Congress on March 18, 1828, and was promulgated the same day by General José de la Mar, president of the Republic (Congress 1828: 50, 54). The government commissioned the minting of two medals at the Lima Mint, whose director and largest size were the same as mentioned above. The first, with a 37 millimeter module, presents an open book in the center of the obverse, containing the legend "Constitution", and behind it numerous solar rays appear, the set is surrounded by the circular legend "Sanctioned by the General Congress of Peru ” (fig. 2). The reverse has an inscription in four lines, surrounded by an oak branch, on the left, and another laurel branch, on the right, which intertwine below. There are two variants of said inscription, number 1 has smaller letters, and the words are ordered as follows: “Promulgated / and sworn on / April 6 / 1828” (fig. 3), and in Variant 2 , with larger letters, appears “Promulgated and sworn / on April 6 / 1828” (fig. 4).

The second medal, with a module of 28 millimeters, follows the design described above, but clearly corresponds to a different stamp, which becomes more evident in the inscription on the reverse “Pro- / mulgada y / sworn on / April 20 / of 1828.” Not only is the distribution of the words different, but also the date indicated (Goepfert 2015: 26). In both modules there are gold and silver specimens.

http://revista-hecate.org/files/3616/3846/8454/Alvarez-Carrasco2021.pdf