The last pesetas: eight coins of 2000–2001, from 1 to 500 pesetas, close the story of a currency that had circulated in Spain since 1868. On 1 January 2002 it gave way to the euro at 166.386 pesetas per euro, and on 28 February 2002 peseta coins ceased to be legal tender.

The set holds every value of the late Juan Carlos I series: 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pesetas. The senior coin, the 500 pesetas, carries the conjoined profiles of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía by Manuel Martínez Tornero, while its reverse, by Luis José Díaz Salas, places a round latent image beside the arms — a security feature that appears only at a certain angle.

Mintages had become modest by then: 4,450,000 of the 500 pesetas were struck in 2000 and 3,330,000 in 2001. The 50 pesetas in the set keeps the «Spanish flower» shape the value received in 1990.

UNC grade: the coins never circulated, there is no wear and the mint lustre is intact. For a peseta collection this is the closing point of the date run — Spain’s entire small change in the final years before the euro.

If you are just starting a collection, the VPcoins catalogue makes it easy to find coins to build it around.