Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
10 Reales - Isabel II Pattern, copper
| Issuer | Barcelona Mint (La Seca) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1854 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Copper |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Draped bust of Queen Isabel II facing right, her hair elaborately coiffed and adorned with a large ornamental floral comb at the rear. The engraver's name POMAR is incused on the truncation. The circumferential legend reads ISABEL II POR LA G · DE DIOS Y LA CONST · and the date * 1854 * appears at the base of the field, flanked by small five-pointed stars. The portrait is rendered in a refined neoclassical style with smooth facial features and finely detailed hair work. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The quartered royal arms of Spain displayed on an ornate baroque shield, featuring castles of Castile and lions of León in the four quarters with a central escutcheon bearing the Bourbon fleurs-de-lis. The shield is surmounted by a closed royal crown and flanked by elaborate acanthus scrollwork supporters. The circumferential legend REINA DE LAS ESPAÑAS runs along the left and right periphery, with two small stars at the base of the field. The overall composition is bold and high-relief, characteristic of mid-nineteenth-century Spanish pattern coinage. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Barcelona's La Seca produced this copper pattern in 1854 as part of Spain's protracted effort to rationalize its coinage system — a process that had been stalling since the 1840s under competing treasury factions and Isabel II's chronically unstable succession of finance ministers. The decimal reform would not be fully enacted until 1864, a full decade after this piece was struck.
Pattern issues from La Seca in this period are exceptionally rare in copper; most surviving trial pieces known for this type are in silver.