One of the Spanish coins that I get more DMs in NumisTeacher’s Instagram about is the 2000 pesetas from 1994, commemorating the International Money Fund and World Bank Annual Meeting, and people quite often ask about its value or its price. So, today, we are going take a look at how much the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 is worth exactly, and whether they were issued for circulation or not.
How much is the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 worth?
When the FNMT, the Spanish mint, issues a coin in its 2000 pesetas, 12, 20, 30 or 40 euros series, they stick it in a small plastic bag. The 2000 pesetas coin from 1994, even though it was the first one in the collection, wasn’t any different.
They also sold a numbered coincard, aimed at collectors with a more carefully prepared presentation.
Inside, that coincard had an explanatory text and the collector’s numbering of each piece.
Depending on which version you own, whether loose, in a plastic bag, or in a coincard, the coin is going to have different values.
Loose coin
If the coin is loose, it means that it has been taken out of the plastic bag or the coincard it was issued in, and, therefore, the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 is worth as much as the silver it is made out of.
The 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 is made out of silver .925 and weighs 18 grams, which means the total silver content of the coin is 16.65 grams. Multiply 16.65 by the price of a silver gram today, and you will end up with how much it is worth.
The price of a silver gram changes daily, you can see how much it is worth here.
And, just in case you are wondering, they can no longer be exchanged in the Bank of Spain, the Spanish central bank, for its facial value. The deadline for that went by on June 2021.
If what you want is to buy one, the price of a 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 is around 13$ or 14$, but it always fluctuates according to the price of silver.
In a plastic bag or in a coincard
If you want to sell a 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 in a plastic bag or in a coincard, that is to say, in mint state, you’ll find out that its value will be one or two dollars above the price of its silver content.
And if what you want is to sell one, its price is around 15$ or 16$ when it still is in its plastic bag, and somewhere around 18$ to 20$ in a coincard, once again, with fluctuations according to the price of silver.
Did the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 circulate?
Yeah. But not very much or for very long.
The mintage of the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 was 8,670,250 coins, as per the Spanish mint’s public data.
It is a huge mintage. And it can’t be explained only by the novelty of issuing a new silver coin: the Spanish population in December 1994 was 39.6 million people. In other words, they minted at a ratio of 1 coin/5 persons, approximately. Those are the numbers of a coin intended for circulation.
On top of that, if we check the Government Order from July 8th, 1994, which regulated its minting and its circulation, we can see that, in Article 3, it says that “this coin will be admitted in public payments without any limitations, and in private transactions, up to 20,000 pesetas.”
That is to say, based on the available data, as the people from Numismática La Dobla pointed out to me, we can deduct that the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 was, indeed, a coin intended for circulation, the first Spanish silver coin for circulation since the 100 pesetas from 1970 was minted by the Franco dictatorship.
But it didn’t circulate for long, or very much.
I think that the reason for this might be Gresham’s Law, which states that, when two coins with the same facial value circulate at the same time, and one is seen as a bad coin, and the other, as a good coin, the bad one will be more used than the good one, and the good one will be put away in savings.
And when the silver 2000 pesetas coin was issued on October 3rd, 1994, Spain already had a 2000 pesetas banknote. Paper, bad; silver, good.
What do the 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 commemorate?
The 2000 pesetas coin from 1994 commemorates the Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that was held in Madrid, the capital of Spain, in October 1994.
These sessions are held yearly. Their location is chosen in a three year cycle: the first two years, Washington DC plays host, and the third one, a city from a member country of those institutions. Madrid applied to be a host in 1990, and it was granted the rights in 1992.
But, even though the coin portrays the main building of the Bank of Spain in Madrid, the Meeting took place in the Palacio Municipal de Congresos, located in the Spanish capital’s Campo de las Naciones. The opening ceremony was held in IFEMA’s facilities, the city’s public body for fairs and exhibitions organization.
This wasn’t the first time that the Bank of Spain building was portrayed in Spanish money either. It already appeared, almost from the very same view, in the 1000 pesetas banknote from 1971.
As you can see, it’s not like the theme for the coin was incredibly interesting, although the coin itself, in my opinion, was indeed pretty. Nonetheless, there’s a lot of people who still has one of these 2000 pesetas coin at their homes, so it’s not like it has a huge value. But, among the circulating coins of the Spanish king Juan Carlos I era, it is on the top places on the list of the most valuable coins. And that should kind of give you a clue about how much the other ones are worth.