St. James's / CNG
Auction 29 - The Lissner Collection 1-2 August 2014
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
SPAIN, Gobierno Provisional (Provisional Government). 1868-1870. AE 25 Milesimas de Escudo (25mm, 6.25 g, 12h). Segovia mint. Dated 29 September 1868. KM 645. In NGC encapsulation graded MS 64 BN. Deep brown. Extremely rare and only one graded higher.
Purchased from Robert Westfall, May 1973.
The increasingly ineffectual and capricious rule of Isabel II (1830-1868) resulted in the overthrow of the monarchy and the installation a republican form of government. Her continual vacillation in government between the moderados (Conservatives) and the progresistas (Liberals), both of whom had supported Isabel's claim to the throne in the First Carlist War (1833-1840), prompted moderates, progressives, and some members of the moderate monarchist Unión Liberal to form a coalition opposing the queen. The crisis began with the collapse of the Unión Liberal government under Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorís in March 1863. To curb the resulting instability, Isabel appointed the conservative General Ramón María Narváez, as President Cabinet on 16 September 1864. When students of the Universidad de Madrid were killed for supporting that University's rector, who had been removed for failing to dismiss a professor who had published articles critical of the queen, the event, known as la Noche de San Daniel, brought down the Narváez government on 21 June 1865. Once more, Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorís was summoned to form a government. This new government was soon faced with its own crises. The pronuncimiento de Villarejo de Salvanés (3 January 1866), a failed rebellion of the progresista general, Juan Prim, and the harsh suppression of the sublevación del cuartel de artillería de San Gil (22 June 1866), a failed popular uprising against the queen, signaled to Spanish progressives and republicans, who viewed Isabel as the source of Spain's problems, that serious unrest existed. Isabel once again replaced O'Donnell with Narváez for the last time. Until his death on 21 April 1868, he maintained a policy of authoritarian repression. The worsening of a financial crisis that had begun in 1866 and bad harvests in 1867 and 1868, combined with increasing unemployment, intensified hatred of the monarchy and a call for revolution. When Narvaéz died on 23 April 1868 and, since Isabel could not reappoint O'Donnell, who had died a few months earlier, she appointed the ultra-conservative Luis González Bravo as President Cabinet. Bravo's appointment represented the last gasp of the monarchy to keep control. Bravo pledged to resist "every revolutionary tendency", including the closing of the courts and the arrest of exile or leaders of the Unión Liberal. In July 1868, Isabel banished Antoine, Duke de Montpensier and his wife, the Infanta Luisa Fernanda, the queen's sister, for supposed plotting to usurp the throne.
The revolution, known in Spain as La Gloriosa, began on 18 September 1868 with the mutiny of naval forces under Admiral Juan Bautista Topete, at Cadiz – the same place where a coup haed been instigated by Colonel Rafael del Riego against Isabella's father, Fernando VII. Shortly thereafter, General Prim, who had returned from exile in England, and General Serrano, who had been brought from his exile on the Canary Islands, signed a manifesto denouncing the government. As a result, much of the army defected to the revolutionary side. Although Isabel made a brief show of force at the Battle of Alcolea on 27 September 1868, her loyalist general, Manuel Pavía, Marquis de Novaliches, was soundly defeated, and Isabel was forced to flee into exile in France. General Serrano entered Madrid, and on 29 September the revolutionary leaders received the reigns of government from the last ruling royalist government under José Gutiérrez de la Concha.
Purchased from Robert Westfall, May 1973.
The increasingly ineffectual and capricious rule of Isabel II (1830-1868) resulted in the overthrow of the monarchy and the installation a republican form of government. Her continual vacillation in government between the moderados (Conservatives) and the progresistas (Liberals), both of whom had supported Isabel's claim to the throne in the First Carlist War (1833-1840), prompted moderates, progressives, and some members of the moderate monarchist Unión Liberal to form a coalition opposing the queen. The crisis began with the collapse of the Unión Liberal government under Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorís in March 1863. To curb the resulting instability, Isabel appointed the conservative General Ramón María Narváez, as President Cabinet on 16 September 1864. When students of the Universidad de Madrid were killed for supporting that University's rector, who had been removed for failing to dismiss a professor who had published articles critical of the queen, the event, known as la Noche de San Daniel, brought down the Narváez government on 21 June 1865. Once more, Leopoldo O'Donnell y Jorís was summoned to form a government. This new government was soon faced with its own crises. The pronuncimiento de Villarejo de Salvanés (3 January 1866), a failed rebellion of the progresista general, Juan Prim, and the harsh suppression of the sublevación del cuartel de artillería de San Gil (22 June 1866), a failed popular uprising against the queen, signaled to Spanish progressives and republicans, who viewed Isabel as the source of Spain's problems, that serious unrest existed. Isabel once again replaced O'Donnell with Narváez for the last time. Until his death on 21 April 1868, he maintained a policy of authoritarian repression. The worsening of a financial crisis that had begun in 1866 and bad harvests in 1867 and 1868, combined with increasing unemployment, intensified hatred of the monarchy and a call for revolution. When Narvaéz died on 23 April 1868 and, since Isabel could not reappoint O'Donnell, who had died a few months earlier, she appointed the ultra-conservative Luis González Bravo as President Cabinet. Bravo's appointment represented the last gasp of the monarchy to keep control. Bravo pledged to resist "every revolutionary tendency", including the closing of the courts and the arrest of exile or leaders of the Unión Liberal. In July 1868, Isabel banished Antoine, Duke de Montpensier and his wife, the Infanta Luisa Fernanda, the queen's sister, for supposed plotting to usurp the throne.
The revolution, known in Spain as La Gloriosa, began on 18 September 1868 with the mutiny of naval forces under Admiral Juan Bautista Topete, at Cadiz – the same place where a coup haed been instigated by Colonel Rafael del Riego against Isabella's father, Fernando VII. Shortly thereafter, General Prim, who had returned from exile in England, and General Serrano, who had been brought from his exile on the Canary Islands, signed a manifesto denouncing the government. As a result, much of the army defected to the revolutionary side. Although Isabel made a brief show of force at the Battle of Alcolea on 27 September 1868, her loyalist general, Manuel Pavía, Marquis de Novaliches, was soundly defeated, and Isabel was forced to flee into exile in France. General Serrano entered Madrid, and on 29 September the revolutionary leaders received the reigns of government from the last ruling royalist government under José Gutiérrez de la Concha.