500 Pesetas - Juan Carlos I

The 500 peseta coin was introduced in 1987 largely because chronic inflation had eroded the 100 peseta piece's purchasing power to near-uselessness for everyday transactions, and the Spanish treasury needed a higher-denomination circulating coin that could actually do the work a large coin is supposed to do. The aluminium bronze alloy was chosen partly for its resistance to vending machine fraud — counterfeiting of the earlier 100 peseta coins had become a genuine administrative headache by the mid-1980s.

Spain's entry into the European Community in 1986 made this series short-lived by design. Monetary planning for what would become the euro was already underway before the last of these pieces left the Madrid mint.