Diameter: 40mm
Silver. An early 19th century adaptation of two emergency issue five peseta coins. Obverse: inscribed ‘5PCS / FER / VII / 1809’. Reverse bearing the arms of Aragon. Adapted to form the top and bottom of a pocket snuff or pill box. Hinged and fitted with a suspension loop.
In 1806 Napoleon summoned Charles IV of Spain and his heir Ferdinand to Bayonne to mediate in their dispute over support for the Franco-Spanish alliance, but once Bourbon royals were under French control they were forced to abdicate, and imprisoned in the Chateau de Valencay. Napoleon then installed his brother Joseph as King of Spain.
The people rose up in revolt. Napoleon ordered his apparently unbeatable columns to crush the insurrection. But the surrender of around 12,000 French troops following their defeat at Bailén (16-19 July 1808) meant that much of Spain had to be abandoned to the insurgents. Britain sent an expeditionary force under Sir Arthur Wellesley and Sir John Moore to assist the Spanish and declared Ferdinand VII as the rightful monarch. One of the major leaders of the Spanish resistance was the Aragonese Jose de Palafox y Melzi, Duke of Saragossa. To recruit and pay his troops he had the present coin type struck in the name of Ferdinand VII. Minted in Tarragona in 1809, they bear the arms of the crown of Aragon, the name of the rightful King and the 5 peseta denomination.