1 Peseta - Alfonso XIII 2nd portrait

Alfonso XIII was an infant king — born to the posthumous heir of Alfonso XII, he ruled from birth under his mother María Cristina's regency until 1902. The 1893–94 peseta belongs to that regency period, when Spain was quietly hemorrhaging its last major colonial possessions. Cuba's independence movement was already organizing, and within five years of this coin's minting, the Spanish-American War would strip Spain of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in a matter of months.

The "2nd portrait" designation reflects a die revision by engraver Luis Marchionni, distinguishing it from the earlier child portrait introduced at the series' inception.