{"product_id":"spain-p163-2000-pesetas-1992-circulated","title":"Spain P164 2000 Pesetas 1992 Circulated—Priest, Doctor, Botanist","description":"\u003cp\u003eA priest examining a flower might seem an unlikely face for money, but \u003cstrong\u003eJosé Celestino Mutis\u003c\/strong\u003e helped turn the plants of Spanish America into objects of scientific study. This Spain 2000 pesetas dated 1992, \u003cstrong\u003ePick P164 with a security thread\u003c\/strong\u003e, connects his portrait to medicinal bark, botanical illustration, and Madrid’s Royal Botanical Garden.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePortrait:\u003c\/strong\u003e José Celestino Mutis, the Spanish priest, physician, and botanist, examining a flower through a magnifying glass.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMap:\u003c\/strong\u003e The American continent behind the portrait, linking Mutis to his work in Spanish America.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eInscriptions:\u003c\/strong\u003e “BANCO DE ESPAÑA,” “DOS MIL PESETAS,” “JOSE CELESTINO MUTIS,” and “MADRID 24 DE ABRIL DE 1992.”\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSignatures:\u003c\/strong\u003e Gov. Mariano Rubio Jiménez; Controller Esteban Róspide Echeto; Cashier Jesús Urdiola Salvador.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEngravers:\u003c\/strong\u003e Isabel Quintanilla, Pablo Sampedro Molero, and Reinhold Gerstetter.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eArchitecture:\u003c\/strong\u003e The Puerta Real, also called the Puerta de Carlos III, the monumental entrance to Madrid’s Royal Botanical Garden.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eScientific work:\u003c\/strong\u003e The title page of Mutis’s \u003cem\u003eHistoria de los árboles de quina\u003c\/em\u003e, his work on cinchona trees.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eHeraldry and ornament:\u003c\/strong\u003e Spain’s coat of arms, a fleur-de-lis, and floral motifs.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eInscription:\u003c\/strong\u003e The gate’s Latin dedication to Charles III and the year MDCCLXXXI, or 1781.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEngravers:\u003c\/strong\u003e Isabel Quintanilla and Reinhold Gerstetter.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch3\u003eOther Characteristics\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCatalog numbers:\u003c\/strong\u003e Pick P164; Numista N#204591.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eWatermark:\u003c\/strong\u003e Head of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eComposition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paper.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 138 × 68 mm.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIssuing entity:\u003c\/strong\u003e Banco de España.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrinter:\u003c\/strong\u003e Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, Spain.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDemonetized:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 1, 2002.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSignatures:\u003c\/strong\u003e Gov. Mariano Rubio Jiménez; Controller Esteban Róspide Echeto; Cashier Jesús Urdiola Salvador.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCurrency:\u003c\/strong\u003e Spanish peseta, Spain’s monetary unit from 1868 until the euro transition.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrinted date:\u003c\/strong\u003e April 24, 1992.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIssue year:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1996.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSecurity feature:\u003c\/strong\u003e A security thread distinguishes this P164 issue from the similar P162 design.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePrinting techniques:\u003c\/strong\u003e Intaglio and lithography.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCondition:\u003c\/strong\u003e Circulated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA magnifying glass instead of a sword\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eBorn in \u003cstrong\u003eCádiz in 1732\u003c\/strong\u003e, José Celestino Mutis was a physician, priest, botanist, and mathematician. His life joined disciplines that modern collectors might expect to find on entirely separate banknotes. The portrait captures him not in a ceremonial pose, but in the act of \u003cstrong\u003elooking closely at a flower\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMutis became a central figure in the \u003cstrong\u003eRoyal Botanical Expedition to New Granada\u003c\/strong\u003e, in what is now Colombia. Its work brought together plant collecting, classification, and meticulous botanical illustration. Those drawings were more than decoration: they preserved details of plants that researchers could compare and study far from the forests where they grew.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlexander von Humboldt\u003c\/strong\u003e met Mutis during his travels through Spanish America. Their encounter places the man on this note within the wider scientific world of the Enlightenment, when correspondence, specimens, and drawings connected researchers across oceans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eThe bark behind a life-saving medicine\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book title on the reverse points to \u003cstrong\u003ecinchona\u003c\/strong\u003e, the tree whose bark became a major treatment for malaria. Its importance grew from Indigenous knowledge of South American plants, later incorporated into European medicine and imperial trade.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eQuinine\u003c\/strong\u003e, the antimalarial compound isolated from cinchona bark in \u003cstrong\u003e1820\u003c\/strong\u003e, was identified after Mutis’s lifetime. His studies belonged to the earlier effort to understand the trees and their medicinal bark. That distinction matters: this note celebrates a researcher of the plant, not the discoverer of the isolated drug.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA title page that could easily be overlooked therefore opens a much larger story about \u003cstrong\u003emedicine, Indigenous knowledge, scientific classification, and the global demand for a valuable natural resource\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eA garden gate and a hidden defender of Indigenous people\u003c\/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cstrong\u003ePuerta Real\u003c\/strong\u003e anchors the reverse in \u003cstrong\u003eMadrid’s Royal Botanical Garden\u003c\/strong\u003e. Its monumental form turns a place of plant study into a national symbol, balancing the intimate scene of a flower under a magnifying glass on the front.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHold the note to the light and its watermark introduces a different historical figure: \u003cstrong\u003eBartolomé de las Casas\u003c\/strong\u003e, the Dominican friar known for criticizing abuses against Indigenous peoples under Spanish colonial rule. His hidden portrait adds another layer to a design associated with the \u003cstrong\u003efive-hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the Americas\u003c\/strong\u003e: science and empire share the paper with a voice remembered for challenging colonial cruelty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAbout Spain\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOrigin of name:\u003c\/strong\u003e “Spain” derives from Latin \u003cem\u003eHispania\u003c\/em\u003e, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula; its earlier origin remains debated.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eCapital:\u003c\/strong\u003e Madrid, roughly 3.3 million residents in the city and more than 6 million in the wider metropolitan area.\u003cul\u003e\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOrigin of the capital’s name:\u003c\/strong\u003e Usually traced through medieval Arabic \u003cem\u003eMayrit\u003c\/em\u003e, associated with water or waterways; the deeper etymology is debated.\u003c\/li\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePopulation:\u003c\/strong\u003e Approximately 48 million in the mid-2020s, more than California.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eArea:\u003c\/strong\u003e Approximately 506,000 km² (195,000 mi²), a little smaller than Texas.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eEconomy:\u003c\/strong\u003e A high-income economy with major tourism, manufacturing, agricultural, and service industries.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMain exports:\u003c\/strong\u003e Vehicles and parts, machinery, pharmaceuticals, food products, and beverages.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBorders:\u003c\/strong\u003e Portugal, France, Andorra, and Gibraltar on the Iberian Peninsula; Spain’s North African enclaves also border Morocco.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eOfficial\/spoken languages:\u003c\/strong\u003e Spanish nationwide; Catalan\/Valencian, Galician, Basque, and Aranese have co-official status in their respective regions.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePeoples and identities:\u003c\/strong\u003e Castilian, Catalan, Galician, Basque, Andalusian, Canarian, and other regional identities, alongside Romani communities and communities of immigrant origin.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eMemberships:\u003c\/strong\u003e United Nations, joined 1955; NATO, joined 1982; European Communities, joined 1986, now the European Union;\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eSovereignty:\u003c\/strong\u003e Roman Hispania was followed by Visigothic rule, Muslim-ruled states, and expanding Christian kingdoms. The dynastic union of Castile and Aragon laid foundations for modern Spain and its overseas empire. The twentieth century brought civil war and Franco’s dictatorship, followed by the democratic transition and the 1978 constitution. This note belongs to the constitutional monarchy under Juan Carlos I.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eOwn this circulated piece of Spain’s final peseta era: \u003cstrong\u003ea botanist at work, a book about medicinal trees, and a garden gate\u003c\/strong\u003e, with a security thread that marks its place in the series. It is a compact collectible with a story that reaches from a single flower to the history of global medicine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Money Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53089182351671,"sku":"ES164CIRC","price":3.96,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0969\/7165\/3431\/files\/ES164-VF-o.png?v=1791069340","url":"https:\/\/worldmoneystore.com\/products\/spain-p163-2000-pesetas-1992-circulated","provider":"World Money Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}