Collecting old peseta coins or coins from any part of the world is a hobby that has been gaining followers in recent years. There are more and more fans who, upon finding old money in their drawers at home, wonder how much their coins are worth and turn to numismatic experts to appraise them and find out if they are of high value. And there are professionals like Jesús Vico who recommend caution: There are coins worth up to 300,000 euros, yes, but also many people who try to scam their owners.
Some of the best paid in Spain are the pesetas. When the euro arrived on January 1, 2002, there were coins from Franco’s time, commemorative of events like Barcelona 92 for example and even much older ones that, suddenly, began to revalue themselves. On second-hand websites and even in auction houses, people could pay up to 95,000 euros for old coins.
There are some that have made history in Spain and, depending on their state of conservation or whether they have any defects, they can be worth thousands of euros. This is the case of the coin of Alfonso XII, minted in 1876 in Madrid that appears in the catalog of the Aureo&Calicó auction house. In SC condition, that is, uncirculated, it costs 2,500 euros.
What is the coin of Alfonso XII that is worth thousands of euros?
The coin of Alfonso
On the reverse, there is the Spanish Coat of Arms with three fleurs-de-lis, which was the symbol of the Bourbon monarchy, restored after the Revolutionary Sexennium of 1868.
The Ministry of Culture has a review of a similar coin, where it tells the history of these metals. And in 1874, when the Bourbon monarchy was restored, a new stage began for the peseta. Following the Royal Order of April 6, 1875, the bust that should appear on the 5 peseta coins with the name of the new monarch was approved.
On the other hand, the Royal Order of May 4, 1875, which approved the dies for the production of coins, in this case 5 pesetas. Later, on August 22, 1876, an update of the monarch’s face was carried out, when he turned 18 years old.
The design was the work of Gregorio Sellán y González, who was the engraver of the Madrid Mint. The shield that appears on the reverse is that of the Provisional Government, which includes the royal crown and the Bourbon escutcheon.
How to know the value of an old coin
From the specialized portal coincollector.com They explain different methods with which to know how much value an ancient coin could have. The first of them is as simple as searching, using the search engine on their website, for the type of currency. But there are more options such as going to auction indexers or checking the price history on second-hand websites like Ebay.
There are also several apps such as Conoscope or Maktun in which it is possible to perform searches by uploading an image. Although, as experts say, it is not very safe because the value marked by the applications is often not the real value.
Another good option is to go to catalogs of ancient coins, which are usually incomplete, since they do not include all of them and if it is not updated, it may be that the price that appears is not the one they have at the time the query is made.