Set Description
Circulation Issue. One-year type, 1897, with restrikes in 1961 and 1962. For restrike examples, please refer to my Custom Set titled "Spain Gold Pesetas Official Restrikes (1961, 1962)."
OBVERSE: Portrait of Alfonso XIII engraved by Bartolomé Maura in July 1895 when Alfonso XIII was 9 years old.
REVERSE: The center image is the royal coat of arms showing the five major realms of unified Spain: the castle for Castile, the lion for León, the stripes for Aragón, the linked chains for Navarre, and (at the bottom) the pomegranate (granada) for Andalusía. The fleurs-de-lis in the center represent the House of Bourbon dynasty of kingship. The coat of arms is flanked with the collar and insignia of the Order of the Golden Fleece, an exclusive order of European royalty of which the king of Spain is the sovereign member. The two pillars represent the Pillars of Hercules at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea, and the banner "plus ultra" ("further beyond") recognizes Spain's overseas provinces and colonies.
In the Slot Name and the Item Description of the set coin, below, the numbers in parentheses identify the date of actual mintage, stamped incusely into the stars located on either side of the authorization date. The authorization date, seen clearly on the coin, is the date of the Spanish law that authorized the minting of a particular quantity of this denomination for legal coinage. From 1868 to 1982 all Spanish peseta coins contained two dates, the authorization date and the mintage date. The use of two dates on regular coinage is a distinctive feature of Spanish peseta coins and is not seen elsewhere in the world.
On this coin, which was both authorized and minted in 1897, the left star reads "18" and the right star reads "97." However, on other coins the authorization date and the mintage date are not always the same. For instance, when restrikes of this 100 Peseta coin were minted in 1961 and 1962, the authorization date remained 1897 but the dates in the stars were "19" in the left star and either "61" or "62" in the right star.
The three initials in the Item Description (SGV) are the initials of the two mint assayers and the mint's scale judge who PERSONALLY guaranteed the coin's purity and weight. SGV = Sandoval, Garcia, Vega. Their initials appear on the reverse side of the coin, assayers to the left, scale judge to the right.
The mint mark is the 6-pointed star, meaning "minted in Madrid." Mints in other Spanish cities used 3-, 4-, 7-, or 8-pointed stars, but those mints had closed by 1870. All gold peseta coins for Spain were minted in Madrid.
Coin weight 32.25806 grams. Purity 900 fine.
Coin diameter 35 millimeters, thickness 2.4 millimeters.
Gold content 0.9334 ounce.
Set Goals
One-Year Type with Set Description.