The bank-notes in circulation vary in amount from 25 pesetas, or 100 reals, to 1000 pesetas.
It is most important for the traveller to know that the notes of no bank in Spain (not even those of the Bank of Spain) are circulable out of the city or town in which they are issued; he should therefore insist upon receiving his money in coin, and paper money should be avoided except by those who intend to make a lengthened stay in any of the larger towns, when local bank-notes may be used.
The value of the old gold coins is reckoned when of full weight—their exact value, however, is uncertain, as these large coins are much worn by time and the sweating by the fraudulent, and seldom have preserved their legal weight. Those deficient should be accompanied with a certificate stating their exact weight and value. This certificate may be obtained in the principal towns from the “Contraste” or “fiel medidor,” the person who is legally authorized to weigh gold coins supposed to be light, and his place is well known. The stranger must take care when he receives onzas, except from first-rate Spanish bankers or merchants, to see that these coins are of correct weight. It is better to have nothing to do with any onzas whatever.
Prior to 1875 the gold pieces of 100 reals which were struck weighed 8·387 grammes, and the rate of exchange at par was 96 reals = £1. In 1875, 1876, they were struck, weighing 8·06451 grammes, making the value at par 100 reals = £1. The former rate of exchange (96 reals) is the one usually given in Madrid, Bilbao, or Seville; in other cities the traveller is fortunate if he gets 9512 reals.
Accounts are now generally kept in pesetas and centimos; in 1865 the escudo was made the highest unit of account. Prior to that date the real and centimo were used in keeping accounts.
The dollar of Spain, so well known all over the world, is the Italian “colonato,” so called because the arms of Spain are supported between the two pillars of Hercules. The ordinary Spanish name is “duro.” They are often, however, termed in banking and mercantile transactions “pesos fuerte,” to distinguish them from the imaginary “peso,” or smaller dollar of 15 reals only, of which the peseta is the diminutive.
The traveller should insist upon receiving his money in 100-real pieces when exchanging his circular notes.
Measures.—The French metrical decimal system was introduced by royal decree (13 July, 1849), and the metro, kilometro, and litro, are now the only official measures employed in Spain, although the old Spanish vara (yard), legua (league), and cuartilla (quart), are still often used by the tradespeople and peasant classes.
A mètre equals 1 yard 312 inches, or 1 vara 7 pulgadas. A kilometro = 1093 yards 2 inches, = ·621 of an English mile. A Spanish legua = 5·555 kilometres = 334 English miles. A Spanish vara consists of 3 pies (feet), each of 12 pulgadas (inches), each of 12 lineas (lines), and equals 2·782 English feet. The English mile = 192523 Spanish yards. The English foot is 13 Spanish inches.
