25 Pesetas

Spain's first Republican government had collapsed and the Bourbon Restoration was already underway when this note entered circulation — Alfonso XII was proclaimed king in December 1874, the same year of issue. The Banco de España had only just been granted its monopoly on note issue that same year, consolidating what had previously been a fragmented system of regional banks of emission. This note is effectively the opening entry of the modern Spanish banknote series.

Domingo Martínez engraved the plates domestically, a deliberate choice at a moment when Spanish authorities were keen to establish credible sovereign printing infrastructure rather than outsource to London or Paris as so many contemporaries did.