A wonderfully intriguing coin

Spanish Seafaring

Spain in Dark-Green, the rest of the European Union (EU) in light green. The rest of Europe in dark grey and the surrounding region in light grey. From Wikipedia.

Spain is in western Europe, just north of Morocco in northern Africa. Given their location and large coastline, it is no surprise they have historically been a major seafaring power. Most accounts of their exploits start around the time of Christopher Columbus in the late 1400s. If you have any good leads on ancient Spanish sailing expeditions, please do let me know and I will add them!

(Image of the three ships of Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the New World, from ItalianTribune.com).

The Spanish navy has an extensive history. In the 16th century, Spain was had one of the largest navies in the world. One major early naval effort by Spain was the “Spanish Armada“, a formidable, 130 strong fleet of ships sent by Spain in 1588 to invade England and overthrow Queen Elizabeth I. The Armada included 30,000 men, 180 priests, and 14,000 barrels of wine. A mixture of tactical expertise, risk taking, and bad weather favoured the English ultimately led to the Spanish Armada’s demise.

Spain was a major player in the “Age of Exploration” or “Age of Discovery”, a period in the 15th – 18th centuries when European explorers ventured across oceans to find new trade routes and territories. Towards the end of this period, from the 1680s to the 1720s has come to be known as the ‘golden age’ of piracy. This was a time of heightened pirate activity, when thousands of ships in the Atlantic and beyond became the prey of roving bands of sea-robbers.

The term the ‘Spanish Main’ is often associated with famous pirates. The Spanish established colonies on the land in the New World and also claimed specific sea routes. The “Spanish Main” referred to the coastal region of the Americas surrounding the Caribbean Sea and South America. The famous pirates who operated around the Spanish Main were the original pirates of the Caribbean. Ships were loaded with their treasure from these colonies to send back to Spain. These Spanish treasures fleets were attacked by many of pirates who used many of the Caribbean Islands as their bases.

Shipping and seafaring are still important to Spain economically and culturally. Being at the gates of the Mediterranean with the strait of Gibraltar, Spain has over 2,300 ships registered, with seaborne trade, in 2017, at 361.8 million tonnes. Spain moved over 117.51 million TEUs (Twenty-foot container Equivalent Units) through six of the largest ports in Europe. The Spanish navy is now ranked 17th in the top 40.

Obverse

The obverse of the coin features an anchor with rope to the left of the central hole and rudder below. The country name “ESPAÑA” is on the left, surrounded by a pair of stars, with the year, 1949.

What makes this coin so fascinating, is that 1949 is not the year this coin was minted. 1949 is the year this SERIES was initially approved, even though minting didn’t commence until 1951. That year was frozen on the coins from 1951 to 1962. From 1963 – 1965 the year was changed to 1963. However, you can still tell which year the coin was minted. Those stars to either side of the country name aren’t plain. The left one contains “19”, and the right one, contains the year of minting:

While I’m doing the close up, on some Spanish coins (not this one though), looks out for variations in the size and shape of the Tilde above the letter Ñ.

Between the Spanish seafaring history, the anchor, and the date hidden away on this coin, I have always found it a fascinating piece.

Reverse

The reverse contains the “Coats of arms of Castilla (castle), León (lion), Aragón (pallets) and Navarra (chains) and yoke and arrows pointing down with pomegranate for the Kingdom of Granada.”. The use of various elements of the coats of arms reminds me of the earlier 8 Maravedis from 1818 I wrote about.

The arrows on this coin are also interesting, as there were two versions of the coin minted in the first year, 1951. This one, with the arrows facing upward, and a version with the arrows pointing down. There were 8 million coins with upward facing arrow and less than a million with downward facing arrows, making it the harder version to find.

What is your favourite coin with a secret design feature, like the dates in stars or arrows on this piece? Do let us know, and we might feature it!