Item: i105671


Authentic Coin of:

Spain
Series: 5th Centennial of the Discovery of 
America
Capture of Granada
1989 Proof Silver 1000 
Pesetas 33mm (13.50 grams) 0.925 Silver (0.4015 
oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 837 | Engraver: 
Manuel Martinez 
Tornero, Rafael Vallejo Garcia
Certification:
NGC PF 66 ULTRA CAMEO 2863559-009
JVAN:CARLOS:I REY:DE:ESPAÑA 19 89 , King 
Juan Carlos.
QUINTO CENTENARIO 1000 PTAS, Knights and army 
before a castle city.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

The Battle of Granada was a siege of 
the city of Granada fought over a period of 
months leading up to its surrender on January 2, 
1492. The city was captured by the combined 
forces of Aragon and Castile (recently united as 
Spain) from the armies of the taifa Muslim 
kingdom of Granada. Granada’s forces were led by 
Sultan Boabdil. This relatively small campaign 
was of momentous consequences as Granada, was 
the last outpost of Moorish rule in Spain and 
its fall brought to an end 780 years of Muslim 
control in the Spanish peninsula.

Granada contains the beautiful Alhambra 
palace, a gem of Islamic architecture, the loss 
of which is mourned in the Muslim world. The 
fall of Granada marked the final act in the 
Reconquista, the campaign by the medieval 
Christian states of Spain to drive out the 
Moors. It was followed by the expulsion of Jews 
and Muslims from Spain, although some remained 
by converting to Christianity. Among these some 
remained secretly Muslim or Jewish (known as 
moriscos and morranos). Many, however genuine 
their conversion, were subject to the suspicions 
and interrogations of the Spanish Inquisition. 
In 1609, descendants of converts were also 
expelled.

A society that had often seen Muslims, Jews, 
and Christians interacting positively had ended. 
The Fall of Granada was a factor in the Spanish 
and Portuguese drive to acquire overseas 
colonies, influencing their attitude of 
ineffable superiority towards the cultures and 
religions they encountered in the New World, for 
which Christopher Columbus set sail later in the 
year of Granada’s defeat. Rediscovery of the 
richness and positive cultural exchange of 
Moorish Spain before 1492, known in Spanish as 
convivencia, may provide clues on how 
contemporary multi-cultural societies can deal 
with the challenges of pluralism and of peaceful 
co-existence.

Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a country mostly located on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe, with there also being two large archipelagoes, the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the African Atlantic coast, two cities, Ceuta and Melilla, on the African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the African coast. The country’s mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only European country to have a border with an African country (Morocco) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5% of its population, mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla.

Flag & Coat of Arms

With an area of 505,990 km² (195,360 sq mi), Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe, the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union, and the fourth largest country in the European continent. By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spain’s capital and largest city is Madrid; other major urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao and Málaga.

Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago. Iberian cultures along with ancient Phoenician, Greek and Carthaginian settlements developed on the peninsula until it came under Roman rule around 200 BCE, after which the region was named Hispania, based on the earlier Phoenician name Sp(a)n or Spania. At the end of the Western Roman Empire the Germanic tribal confederations in migration from Central Europe invaded the Iberian peninsula and established themselves in relatively independent realms in its western provinces, including the Sueves, Alans and Vandals. Eventually, the Visigoths would integrate by force all remaining independent territories in the peninsula, including Byzantine provinces into the Kingdom of Toledo that more or less unified politically, ecclesiastically and legally all the former Roman provinces or successor kingdoms of what was then known in documents as Hispania.

The Visigothic kingdom fell to the Moors except in the north where shortly after started a process known as Reconquista. Spain emerged as a unified country in the 15th century under the Catholic Monarchs, who completed the eight centuries-long Reconquista in 1492. In the early modern period, Spain became one of history’s first global empires, leaving a vast cultural and linguistic legacy that includes over 500 million Hispanophones, making Spanish the world’s second most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.

Spain is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy, with King Felipe VI as head of state. It is a major developed country with the world’s fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity. It is a member of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Eurozone, the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), the Union for the Mediterranean, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), OSCE, the Schengen Area, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and many other international organisations. Spain has a “permanent invitation” to the G20 summits that occur generally once a year.