Anes, Gonzalo

Ministerio de Economia y Hacienda.  Madrid, 1988.  Exhibition catalogue.  PB 294 pages. 210 x 240mm.  Thousands of illustrations of documents, coins, medals and dies, wax models and patterns, mostly in excellent colour.

As it is printed by the Madrid Mint, which also prints stamps and banknotes, you will assume, correctly, that it is well printed.  An exhibition catalogue for the 200th anniversary of the accession of Carlos III, at a time when Spain was a great world power at the height of its economic domination of Europe - and in 1988 it was not a member of the group of PIGS.

Historically an interesting period - the colonies were pumping gold and silver back to the homeland, there was monetary reform, war, and the like.  The exhibition was a good didactic one, even showing contemporary money from the rest of Europe, and Spanish coins modified to serve elsewhere in the world - including cutting bits out of Spanish coins by the British Colonies.