Franco’s portrait is that of an older man, somewhat shrunken, not like the fuller-faced portrait on the coin series launched from the late-‘40s through the late-‘50s. But the reverse coat-of-arms is a different story, all Sixties-modern and fashionably incomplete.
Spain’s 1966 100-peseta is a very common coin, of course, but still it stands apart from the crowd. It was a part of the last gasp of the world’s circulating silver, and it was a high-value coin in its day, with real spending power.
Here was one way to have spent a big silver 100-peseta….
x: When it was new, this 1966(66) 100-peseta piece would have bought one of the Madrid bullfight’s 75-peseta seats recommended by Arthur Frommer in the 1966-67 edition of his seminal Europe On 5 Dollars a Day, together with the 15 pesetas owing to the ticket broker, and the 3 pesetas for a leather cushion, with perhaps enough left over for a drink and a program. (xx)
A half-century ago. Yikes.
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