Emporion was a Greek colony founded in the 6th century BCE by the Phocaeans, who, after settling in Alaia (now Corsica) reached Massalia (now Marseilles) and eventually landed on the coast of Catalonia. They settled on a small island now known as San Martín de Ampurias (Gerona) and lived peacefully alongside the indigenous Iberians, forming two separate communities linked by trade. Emporion became a prominent trading hub, where both local and imported goods were exchanged. 

During the Punic Wars, Emporion allied with Carthage, as evidenced by coins with Punic influence. At the end of the 3rd century BCE, the Romans landed in the area again and expelled the Carthaginians. In 195 BCE, after a number of revolts, the consul Cato arrived with a large army and the city ended up surrendering to Rome. Its inhabitants later received Roman citizenship—first the Iberians and then the Greeks—although the duopoly (dual city system) had already disappeared by then. Emporion was eventually classified as a Roman municipality. 

The city was famous for its linen fabrics and bustling agricultural exports, and was also renowned for its ceramics. 

The first coins from the Iberian Peninsula—with which the Banco Santander collection began—were drachmas featuring a female head flanked by ears of wheat and dolphins on the obverse, and a winged Pegasus with the inscription EMPORITON on the reverse. 

According to tradition, Cadiz, whose present name comes from the Punic Gadir, was founded by the Phoenicians of Tyre in 1104 BCE, although the most consistent archaeological evidence dates from the 7th century. The Phoenicians established a very busy commercial colony there, renowned for the silver trade, tuna fishing and the early development of metallurgy. Its privileged geographical position made it a strategic enclave in the western Mediterranean. It soon fell under Carthaginian influence and, in the 5th century BCE, achieved remarkable development. Gadir coinage began to burgeon during the conflicts between Carthage and Rome. In 206 BCE, the city signed a pact with Rome in order to retain a degree of autonomy. It was an important enclave during the reign of Julius Caesar. In 43 BCE, after the Caesar’s assassination, the Roman city of Gades was founded alongside the original Gadir.

The first coins date back to the 3rd century BCE and feature images of the god Helios and tuna fish. Punic inscriptions (such as “made in Gadir”) were later introduced, as was the image of Melqart, the Phoenician god of the sea. The collection preserves some of these early coins, as well as Roman provincial coins, including some dedicated to the founder Balbo.

Although it did not continuously function as a mint, Cadiz was a prominent financial centre during the 16th and 18th centuries and a key setting for the promulgation of the 1812 Constitution, as evidenced by coins such as the two-escudo coin with the crowned ‘C’ mintmark.

Mints have always adapted to changing times. Gadir followed a Carthaginian pattern in the 3rd century BCE, and two hundred years later, Gades was minting sesterces according to the Roman standard. Ebusus issued hemidrachmas under Punic rule in the 3rd century BCE, and by the 1st century BC, it was issuing semisses as per the Roman standard.

Every monetary system was based on rules and relationships pertaining to weight and metal that defined denominations (multiples or divisors).

Greek coins did not present strict uniformity, but they  did have a basic order. In silver, the unit was the drachma, with multiples such as the didrachma, tetradrachma, or decadrachma, and divisors such as the tetrobol, triobolus, diobolus and obolus. There were even smaller fractions, such as the hemiobolus, tetartemorion and hemitartemorion.

The Roman Empire had a clearer and more unified system based on three metals (a trimetallic system): gold, silver and bronze. In gold, the aureus; in silver, the denarius and its divisor, the quinarius; and in bronze, the sesterce and its divisors, the dupondius, the as, the semis and the quadrans. For example, one aureus was equivalent to two gold quinarii, 25 denarii, 50 silver quinarii, 100 sesterces, 200 dupondii, 400 asses, 800 semis or 1,600 quadrans.

Under the Habsburg and Bourbon dynasties in Spain, the basic system was structured around the 8 escudos in gold and the 8 reales in silver, and there were divisors of 4, 2, 1 and ½ in both series.