Set Description
Circulation Issue. Two-year type, 1878 and 1879, with restrikes in 1961 and 1962. This custom set includes the rare variant 1878(78) EMM over DEM. For restrike examples, please refer to my Custom Set titled "Spain Gold Pesetas Official Restrikes (1961, 1962)."
OBVERSE: Portrait of Alfonso XII engraved by Gregorio Sellán in 1876 when Alfonso XII was 18 years old.
REVERSE: Centered in a crowned mantle, the royal coat of arms displays 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.
In the Slot Name and the Item Description of each 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 these 10-peseta coins, which were authorized and minted in 1878 and 1879, the left star reads "18" and the right star reads "78" or “79.” However, on other coins the authorization date and the mintage date are not always the same. For instance, when restrikes of the 1878 coin were minted in 1961 and 1962, the authorization date remained 1878 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 (e.g., EMM) are the initials of the two mint assayers followed by the mint's scale judge. They personally guaranteed the coin's purity and weight. 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. All peseta gold coins for Spain were minted only in Madrid. By 1870, the other mints had closed.
Coin weight 3.225806 grams. Purity 900 fine.
Coin diameter 19 millimeters, thickness 0.8 millimeters.
Gold content 0.09334 ounce.
Set Goals
Complete 3-Coin Set of Circulation Issues.