Owner Comments:
Mintage: 90,617.
Portrait of Alfonso XII at age 18. Engraved by Gregorio Sellán.
EMM = Escosura, Morejón, Mendoza (over DEM = Diaz, Escosura, Mendoza; see below).
10 Peseta coins were minted contemporaneously with 25 Peseta coins during the reign of Alfonso XII, but the smaller denomination was completely overshadowed by the larger one. Altogether, only 123,864 coins of 10 Pesetas were minted (over 2 years) versus 37,337,622 coins of 25 Pesetas (over 11 years), a coinage ratio of 1-to-301 and a face value ratio of 1-to-753.
Today, original 10 Peseta coins of either date are hard to find.
In addition, this example is a rare variant, "EMM sobre DEM" ("EMM over DEM") as catalogued in Cayón (#17521). Mid-year 1878, Morejón replaced Diaz as one of two mint assayers. Minting did not begin until after this occurred and generally the coins were struck with new EMM reverse dies. But at least one of the DEM reverse dies was modified to EMM. Interestingly, many unused, unaltered DEM dies were kept in storage and finally used in 1961 and 1962 for the official restrikes of the 10 Peseta coin.