Manuel de Falla died in Alta Gracia, Argentina in 1946, having spent his final years in self-imposed exile after refusing to lend cultural legitimacy to the Franco regime. The irony of a Francoist-era Spain later celebrating him on official coinage is not lost on musicologists. This 2014 issue appeared in the final months of Juan Carlos I's reign — he abdicated in June of that year in favor of Felipe VI, making it one of the last gold commemoratives bearing his effigy.
Manuel de Falla died in Alta Gracia, Argentina in 1946, having spent his final years in self-imposed exile after refusing to lend cultural legitimacy to the Franco regime. The irony of a Francoist-era Spain later celebrating him on official coinage is not lost on musicologists. This 2014 issue appeared in the final months of Juan Carlos I's reign — he abdicated in June of that year in favor of Felipe VI, making it one of the last gold commemoratives bearing his effigy.