The Virtual Collection separates numismatics — struck coin — from notaphily. In Puerto Rico the two stories meet in 1895: the exchange note gathered the Mexican silver, and the provincial coinage, struck in Madrid, took its place.
This case opens with a silver 20 centavos of that year, with the boy Alfonso XIII’s bust and the initials P·G·V. It is the only coinage series made for the island’s exclusive use.
Puerto Rico’s paper money, including the 1895 exchange note, is documented in the notaphily case. Puerto Rico · Colonial and transition issues
Coins in the collection
One unslabbed silver 20 centavos of 1895, officials P·G·V. Further coin pages will be published as they are documented.
1895–1896
The provincial peso
The only coinage struck for Puerto Rico’s exclusive use: five silver denominations, dated 1895 and 1896, to replace the Mexican peso.
By the late nineteenth century the island ran on foreign silver: Mexican pesos, macuquinas, and countermarked coin. The royal decree of 17 August 1895 ordered it gathered in exchange for the 1-peso exchange note and a provincial coinage struck in Madrid. Five denominations followed: the 1 peso of 1895 (8,500,000 pieces), 40 centavos of 1896 (725,000), 20 centavos of 1895 (3,350,000), 10 centavos of 1896 (700,000), and 5 centavos of 1896 (600,000), per the table in Spanish Wikipedia. The peso was struck in .900 silver; the fractions in .835 silver. The 20 centavos is the only fraction dated 1895 and, after the peso, the largest mintage.
1895
Madrid and P·G·V
The provincial coinage was struck in Madrid. The disc carries no mint mark: the house signature is the initials P·G· and ·V· at the foot of the reverse.
P and G are the assayers; V, the weigh master. The Ruymán archive names them Félix Miguel Peiró Rodrigo, Antonio García González, and Remigio Vega Vega; Numista abbreviates Peiró, García, and Vega. The same initials sign the peninsular peseta of those years, so P·G·V alone does not mark a Puerto Rican piece: the ISLA DE PUERTO RICO legend and the centavo value do. Below the bust, B·M is the signature of engraver Bartolomé Maura y Montaner, to whom Documenta & Instrumenta also attributes the design of the 1895 exchange note.
1886–1898
The boy Alfonso XIII
Alfonso XIII was king from birth, in 1886. In 1895 he was nine: his child’s bust facing left saw out Spanish sovereignty on the island.
The legend abbreviates ALFONSO XIII P(OR) L(A) G(RACIA) D(E) D(IOS) REY C(ONSTITUCIONAL) DE ESPAÑA: “Alfonso XIII, by the grace of God, constitutional king of Spain.” Numista dates the type within Alfonso XIII’s reign over Puerto Rico (1886–1898). Three years after striking, the Treaty of Paris ceded the island to the United States. The provincial silver kept circulating for a time beside the dollar; Numista records it as demonetized on 12 April 1900.
Sources
- Wikipedia (Spanish) — Puerto Rican provincial peso (opens in a new tab)
Five denominations, striking in Madrid, and the mintage table by value and year.
- Wikipedia — Currencies of Puerto Rico (opens in a new tab)
.835 fineness for the fractions and .900 for the peso; engraver B.M., Bartolomé Maura y Montaner.
- Ruymán (archive) — Provincial Peso series of P.R., Alfonso XIII (1895–1896) (opens in a new tab)
Names of officials P, G, and V and of engraver B·M.