Owner Comments:
The Spanish 1870 2-centimo bronze coin with a mintage of 115,869,000 weighs 2 grams and is 20mm in diameter. When the Spanish Provisional Government established the peseta as their monetary unit it was important that each coin minted have its intrinsic value tied to its weight. Thus, with the 2-centimos coin weighing twice as much as the 1-centimo, a person could exchange two grams of bronze for goods and services worth exactly two grams of bronze.
The obverse of the Spanish Provisional Government bronze coins gives the weight of the coin. The reverse of each bronze coin expresses that weight as a ratio in kilograms. Therefore, there are 1000 1-centimo, 500 2-centimos, 200 5-centimos, or 100 10-centimos coins in a kilogram of bronze. Finally, the coin's denomination on the reverse is equal to its weight on the obverse. This simple system of intrinsic value is just what was needed to instill public confidence in the peseta during the uncertain times of the late 1860s and early 1870s.
The initials L.M. underneath Hispania on the obverse of the 1 and 2-centimos coin represent Luis Marchionni as the designer of these two coins. On the 5 and 10-centimos coins is the first initial and full last name of Luis Marchionni. Similar to the 1-centimo, the 2-centimos coin would not be minted again until 1904 and like the 1-centimo coin, it was demonetized on October 29, 1941. The 2-centimos coin like all other bronze Spanish Provisional Government coins was struck under the auspices of die cutter Oeschger Mesdach & Company in Barcelona, Spain.
Oeschger Mesdach & Company based in Strasbourg; France provided engraving and coin manufacturing services for countries that did not have persons at their mint skilled in die-cutting. The following information about them is copied below from the February 1964 edition of the ANA magazine, “The Numismatist.”
OESCHGER, MESDACH & CO. Known as Eschger, Ghesquiere & Co., after 1881. Die-sinkers at Ter Kiele, Holland, and Biache (Pas-de-Calais) Paris. At one time owned private mints in Spain and executed many regular coins for that and other countries. Among the unofficial patterns, they claim responsibility for Cambodia 5 and 10 centimes engraved by Wiirden and the Bulgaria 10 santims of 1880 and 1887.