Franco 25 Centimos

The 25 centimos coin from Franco's Spain was minted using aluminum-bronze planchets, a practical choice that recycled materials from earlier issues to cope with postwar shortages.

That alloy gave it a distinctive golden hue, which fooled more than a few people into thinking it was worth more than its face value. The design featured the Spanish coat of arms on the obverse, with the year and denomination on the reverse—simple, no frills.

We don't know the exact mintage figures for every year between 1947 and 1953; records from that era are spotty. What we do know is that these coins circulated widely, bearing the brunt of everyday transactions in a recovering economy.

Some claim they were hoarded as political symbols, but that's mostly nonsense. They were just coins.