2.50 Pesetas - Francisco Franco

Franco's government launched this denomination as part of a broader peseta redenomination effort in the early 1950s, when rampant post-civil-war inflation had rendered smaller fractional coins essentially worthless in daily commerce. The aluminium bronze alloy was a deliberate cost-reduction measure — Spain's economy, still largely isolated under autarky, had neither the silver reserves nor the hard currency to import adequate minting metals.

Production continued well into 1971 despite the denomination becoming increasingly impractical, a bureaucratic inertia not unusual for Francoist institutions resistant to monetary reform. The dated dies frequently lag the actual striking year, a known characteristic of the series.