Second Republic 1 Centimo

The 1 centimo coin from Spain's Second Republic was struck using bronze salvaged from whatever scrap was available during the Civil War, a practical necessity that speaks volumes about the era's shortages.

That meant planchets sometimes came from melted-down religious icons or old reales, turning numismatic necessity into a form of recycling avant la lettre. The coin itself bears a simple design: the obverse with a bundle of arrows and the Phrygian cap, symbols of the republic, while the reverse lists the denomination and year.

Mintage figures are murky; records from the Madrid mint were likely destroyed in the conflict, so exact numbers remain a guess. Weighing about 1.5 grams and measuring 15 millimeters across, it's a modest piece that circulated briefly before Franco's forces took over.

One oddity: some specimens show unusual wear patterns, as if they'd been through a war themselves.