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The Spanish 1904(04) 2-centimo bronze coin has a mintage of 10,000,003, weighs 2 grams, and is 20mm in diameter. An incuse (04) inside a six-point star underneath the obverse bust of Alfonso XIII denotes that the coin was struck at Madrid in 1904. The initials of engraver B. Maura appear at the bottom left rim of Alfonso’s bust. The central device on the reverse is the Spanish Royal coat of arms with the date of authorization, 1904 underneath. The initials S.M. along the lower left rim of the reverse refer to assayers Arturo Sandoval and Miguel Martínez Fraile. The initial .V. along the lower right rim of the reverse refers to balance judge Remigio Vega Vega.
Alfonso XIII was born on May 17, 1886, becoming the King of Spain upon his birth. His mother Maria Christina of Austria served as his regent. Just days after his birth he was baptized wearing a golden fleece for chivalry. By virtue of his royal birth, Alfonso XIII automatically became a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece. On May 31, 1906, Alfonso XIII married Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.
As Alfonso XXIII grew up, so did the coins that bear his image. Alfonso XIII’s first coin introduced in 1888 portrayed him as a toddler and then in 1892 as a kindergarten-aged child. About 1896, he appeared as a pre-teen boy and in 1904 as a young man dressed in a military uniform. The coin bearing his 5th portrait dated around 1911 shows him as a man and on his 6th and final coin in 1926, he appears as a mature man of about 40 years.
There were a number of events that led to the ouster of Alfonso XIII as King of Spain in 1931 to end the “Restoration-Era” of the Bourbon Dynasty. The first, under Regent Maria Christina, was losing the 1898 Spanish-American War. As a result of that war, Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico, Gaum, and the Philippines. Losing this war was a national disaster both psychologically and economically.
From his 1902 coronation on his 16th birthday, Alfonso XIII became very active in the affairs of the Spanish parliament. This had a destabilizing effect on the Constitutional Monarchy of Spain. During World War I, Spain remained neutral but offered aide to the prisoners of war. From 1920 to 1926 Spain engaged in an unpopular war to retain a colony in Northern Morocco. As a result of the war, Alfonso XIII acquired the nickname “Alfonso the African.”
Perhaps the biggest miscue of Alfonzo’s reign was hitching his wagon to the likes of dictatorial Prime Minister Miguel Primo de Rivera (In office 1923-1930). Under his administration, Miguel Primo de Rivera with the full backing of Alfonso XIII suspended the constitution and put the country under martial law. Several of the reforms Prime Minister Primo de Rivera initiated didn’t help the people he intended. Eventually, he lost the support of the king and the military and resigned.
Economically, the peseta was pegged to the gold standard which caused it to lose half its value by 1931. This combined with a poor economy and a burgeoning deficit finally took its toll on the monarchy. For Alfonso XIII in 1931, it was too late for him to make amends as he could not separate himself from the hand-picked prime minister that he so often sided with. Eventually, he too lost the backing of the military and was forced to abdicate after a republican referendum on the monarchy. On April 14, 1931, Alfonso XII went into exile in Rome as the Second Spanish Republic assumed power.