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25 ECU Lepanto Battle and Alcalá University
| Issuer | Spain |
|---|---|
| Year | 1994 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 169.40 g |
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| Reverse description | The central field presents a richly detailed panoramic scene of the naval Battle of Lepanto (1571), depicting numerous galleys locked in close combat amid billowing cannon smoke, crashing waves, and fallen masts, rendered in the manner of a historical engraving. The battle scene is set within a broad, slightly recessed inner circle surrounded by a wide raised border bearing the circumferential legend. Below the central scene in the exergue, the date '· 19 M 94 ·' appears, with the crowned 'M' mintmark of the Madrid Mint flanked by the split date. The reverse commemorates the famous Cervantine description of the battle as the greatest occasion the centuries had ever seen. |
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| Mint | Real Casa de la Moneda, Madrid |
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| Additional information |
The two subjects share more than a catalog grouping. Philip II funded the construction of Alcalá's Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso and also assembled the Holy League fleet that met the Ottomans at Lepanto in 1571 — both expressions of the same Counter-Reformation ambition that defined his reign. Cervantes fought at Lepanto and lost the use of his left hand there, a detail he later described as the finest occasion any century had ever seen.
The 25 ECU denomination was issued under Spain's pre-euro commemorative program, which used the European Currency Unit as a prestige denomination never intended for circulation.