I was wondering if anyone knew much about the 1892 Alfonso XIII 20 Peseta Gold. Someone asked me about it today and when looking at it, I noticed that it had a relatively high mintage of over 2 million pieces. This is more than some of the other 20 Peseta Gold from the period, yet the 1892 brings significantly more money. I just wondered if anyone knew why the 1892 is so expensive. Were some of them not release and melted? Was the attrition particularly high for the date? Thanks in advance for any information.
Is there any reason why the coin is scarcer than the mintage suggests? Does it have to do with Spain's economic conditions at the time leading to the Spanish American War? Are there records of large meltings or especially heavy use for the date? Thanks again.
The story is that mint records of the count (2,430,387) inadvertently included mintage from 1890 (2,344,449). By subtraction, perhaps only 85,878 1892 20 Pesetas coins were minted, explaining their rarity.
My 2011 comment is incorrect. Here is the correct explanation from Spain: According to José María Aledón ("La Peseta, Catálogo Básico"), the issue of 1890 lasted into 1892 without changing the type ("pelón") or the date. Most 20-peseta pieces minted in 1892 used Type 1 ("pelón") dies from 1890 and dated 1890. Altogether, the actual number of 20-peseta pieces dated 1890 could be around 4.77 million (2,344,449 + almost all of 2,430,327). When the new Type 2 ("bucles") dies finally arrived at the mint at year's end of 1892, only a few thousand pieces dated 1892 were minted ("sólo unos pocos millares de piezas" - Aledón). The exact mintage breakdown is not recorded. The Official Mintage for 1892 (2,430,327) includes both issues, most Type 1 (dated 1890) and a few Type 2 (dated 1892).
