Description

The Royal Spanish Mint has minted the second issue of the collection of four coins dedicated to the 5th Centenary of the first round-the-world voyage.

The coins in this series are minted between 2019 and 2022, one per year, coinciding with the four years of the Magellan and Elcano expedition (1519-1522). All of them are minted in sterling silver and have 8 reals metric, a piece that, due to its wide diffusion and use in Europe, America and the Far East, became the first currency in use worldwide.

Previous issues in this series: (2019)

The obverse of this coin, as in the previous issue, shows images of Juan Sebastián Elcano and Fernando de Magallanes, taken from the portraits of both of them kept in the Naval Museum in Madrid, together with an image of Carlos V.

On the back of each of the pieces, there is an episode of such a historic expedition. On this occasion, it is dedicated to the passage of the Strait of Magellan, or Dark Sea, which was how the Atlantic Ocean was called at that time, so called because, even knowing the direction of the winds, they did not know where it would lead them. There was no known inhabited territory beyond this and they ran the risk of getting lost in the mist and darkness. Moreover, it was thought that monsters and mermaids lived in those waters and took the sailors with them to the bottom of the sea.

Fortunately, on 1st November 1520, All Saints' Day, they reached what would be called the Strait of Magellan, a passage to cross from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It took them 28 days to make the crossing.

The coin aims to represent that feeling of fear when crossing an unexplored sea by adding sea monsters that came from men's imagination. The little angel on top of the boat represents the force of the winds.

Click here to see enlarged image of the obverse and reverse of this coin.

The coin’s characteristics are described below:

Spanish 8-real coin

• Face Value: 10 Euro
• Weight: 27 g
• Diameter: 40 mm
• Maximum Mintage: 6,000 units

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