50 Euro Cents 1st type, 1st map

Spain's euro coinage entered circulation in January 2002, but the 1999–2001 dated pieces were struck in advance and held in reserve — never released until the peseta was officially withdrawn. The Royal Mint in Madrid had been preparing transition coinage for nearly three years before the public ever handled one. The "first map" reverse, shared across all eurozone nations at launch, was retired after it was pointed out that the depiction of Europe excluded parts of the continent east of the design boundary — a cartographic embarrassment that prompted the redesign adopted from 2007 onward.