PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT

The September 1868 Revolution, La Gloriosa, marked the end of the reign of Isabella II and the beginning of an era of great changes. One of the first actions led by the Provisional Government was the creation of the peseta on October 19, 1868. This new currency aligned with the metrics of the Latin Monetary Union and, for the first time, sought to feature national symbols endorsed by the Real Academia de la Historia ‘Royal Academy of History’. As a result of these regulations, the famous duros of 1869 emerged, which would serve as the propaganda tool of the new government. We have information about their production and design, reports from the Real Academia de la Historia regarding the shield and the types, the design competition, etc. The final image sought to represent Spain as in the ancient coins of Hadrian, where the matron appears between the Pyrenees and Gibraltar, with an olive branch and the addition of the mural crown under the name of ESPAÑA, depicting the nation without specifying its political regime. On the reverse side, the new national shield, no longer dynastic, was informed by the Academia de la Historia as historically representing the unity of the ancient medieval kingdoms, to which the Pillars of Hercules are added as a reminder of Spain’s discovery and overseas expansion, along with a mural crown, used to crown the shield without prejudging the future political regime being discussed by the constituent Cortes. In fact, the edge of the coin bears the phrase SOBERANIA NACIONAL ‘national sovereignity’. Economically, this coinage marked Spain's de facto integration into the Latin Monetary Union (December 23, 1865), promoted by Napoleon III. To this end, technical legends were placed on the reverse side, indicating their fineness and cutting, which was highly unusual but demonstrated to the public that these pieces were equal in value to the 5 francs of France, Switzerland or Belgium, and the 5 liras of Italy. The duro with stars 18-69, like this one, was not minted until the end of that year. In June 1869, the Spanish Ministry of Finance admitted that the minting of pesetas at that time had no other purpose than to circulate a coin to commemorate the Provisional Government's mandate, adding that the die-stamps for the 5 pesetas pieces were not yet finished. This text should be supplemented with the information that the factory books' data for these pieces cover the economic year 1869-1870. Therefore, we cannot determine the exact number of pieces minted in 1869, but they must have been relatively few compared to subsequent issues of this coin.