Owner Comments:
Mintage: 875,333.
Type 1: "pelón" ("bald headed"). Portrait of Alfonso XIII from 1887 as a 1-year-old infant. Engraved by Gregorio Sellán.
MPM = Morejón, Peiró, Mendoza.
Posthumous heir of Alfonso XII (died November 25, 1885), Alfonso XIII was declared king at birth (May 17, 1886). His reign lasted until 1931 when he fled Spain during a republican uprising. He did not abdicate. He died in Rome in exile in 1941. The newly formed Republic devolved into civil war that ended with General Francisco Franco's monarchist victory in 1939, but Franco retained power ("El Caudillo") until his death in 1975. Two days after Franco's death, Alfonso XIII's grandson Juan Carlos became king of Spain in accordance with the law of succession promulgated by Franco.
The 20-peseta gold coin was set to debut in 1887. The Spanish government had authorized the minting, and dies had been made and sent to the mint. But because of a national gold reserve shortage at the time, no coins were actually minted in 1887, or in 1888 either. The first 20-peseta coins were minted in 1889 (example above). Interestingly, the unused 1887 dies remained in storage and were finally used in 1961 and 1962 for the Official Restrikes of the 20-peseta coin. A similar situation arose in 1896, when minting of Type 3 20-peseta coins was authorized and dies made, but no coins were minted until 1899, and the 1896 dies stayed in storage for over sixty years until they were used for the Official Restrikes.