The Peninsular War (1808-1814) is one of the most terrible, but also the most fascinating, episodes in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. The coinage played a fundamental part in it from both the economic and the political perspective, and therefore this exhibition takes advantage of the commemoration of the Bicentenary of the outbreak to offer a singular view of it from the numismatic perspective.

The first section presents some of the most important protagonists and general political events of the conflict through the testimony of contemporary coins and medals. The second focuses on the resumption of the minting of coinage in Catalonia, after a century without its own coinage: here we see the series of the Barcelona Mint operating under the French occupation (1808-1814); the emergency issues in the name of Ferdinand VII from the cities of Girona, Lleida and Tarragona (1808-1809), and the production of the mint of Catalonia, active successively in Reus, Tarragona and Majorca (1809-1814). We also clearly see some of the phenomena associated with the circulation of coinage, such as hording or forgery. The third section looks at the complex process of minting coinage: the supply of metal, the installation of machinery and the organization of the people working at the mint. The exhibition ends with a review of the consequences of the war and evokes the memory of the Peninsular War through artistic and military medals, engravings and printed books.