Spanish Franco Silver Coins: From €2.20 to €12.15 in Andorra

Pakillo sells for €4.50 in Madrid despite silver rally

Silver prices have risen by 30% over the past few months, according to estimates from market participants. The 100 peseta coins of Franco, made of 0.800 fine silver, are still offered at €4.50 in Madrid's Plaza Mayor, with some stalls asking €5 and €5.50. Other batches were closed at €4.80. No one has changed their tags. The gap between the metal's rally and the stagnation of the pakillo is the focus of a price tracking effort that leaves sellers with few explanations.

How much does a pakillo cost depending on the sales channel?

The actual range of prices is wider than any single advertisement suggests. In Madrid, loose coins without negotiation sell for €4.50; a batch of 15 nearly uncirculated pieces was closed at €4.80; and one seller offered up to 1,000 units at €4.50 to anyone taking the whole lot. In Valencia, loose coins were asked for at €6. Buying in volume lowers the price, and this market law admits no numismatic patriotism.

On the other side of the counter, the spread collapses. Plaza Mayor paid €3.20 per coin; a jeweler claimed to pay €2.20, according to a forum user who did not rule out it being an initial offer; some stalls did not go above €2. An operator based in Andorra recorded purchases at €10.05 and sales at €12.15 per unit. Between the floor of €2.20 and the ceiling of €12.15 there is no single market: there are three that barely communicate with each other.

Why silver rises 30% but the pakillo doesn't move

Composition explains much of the deadlock. The 100 peseta coin is 0.800 fine silver, and foundries and silversmiths prefer 925 for working jewelry. This detail, which seems minor, reduces its natural buyer pool. Added to this, according to forum users trinc the market, most of the business is in the hands of the numismatic circuit and the piece is practically sold for melting.

The contrast with the €12 coins is stark. According to arguments repeated in the thread, those can still be acquired at face value, meaning silver below market price, with 925 purity and the insurance of the face value: they should not sell for less than €12. One seller offered 200 units, from all series between 2002 and 2010, at €13 each when the silver content was around €15. The math speaks for itself.

1967 and 1969 variants selling for €280

The real money isn't in the bulk. It's in the details. The auction held on 27-10-2010 by Soler y Llach-Martí Hervera in Barcelona awarded a 1967 EBC (Extremely Fine) pakillo with a displaced edge for €190, another 1969 SC (Uncirculated) with a straight bar for €280, and a third 1969 SC with a curved bar for €120, all plus 18% fees. A common 1970 pakillo, however, could be worth around €12 and €18 depending on condition.

Here appears the gold vein and also the trap. According to a forum user, coins were tampered with post-production—usually by goldsmiths, jewelers, and silversmiths, almost never by numismatists—using 1967 pieces to simulate 1969 ones, which have real demand because many collectors cannot afford the originals due to price.

From the jeweler offering €2.20 to the lot of 258 coins

Dispersed offers paint a market without a clearinghouse. Five pakillos were advertised for €60, twelve euros per piece and triple what the street asks in Madrid. A private individual put up for sale a lot of 258 coins with delivery in Zaragoza, Madrid, Malaga, or Barcelona, warning that in Andorra they were paid near €13. In parallel, foreign silver circulated with its own labels: 1997 Mexican Libertad ounces at €13, the 1979 scale ounce at €12, Cuauhtémoc at €10, 1923 Peace dollars at €10, 50 franc Hercules at €10. Eagles did not drop below €17.

The buyer's manual repeated in these deals fits in one line: "you have to squeeze the seller and cry a little."

Is the pakillo a good investment?

With the data on the table, the answer depends on what is understood by investing. The metal has risen and the retail price has not moved from the four and five euro range, while buying barely reaches three. According to messages in the thread, those who accumulated hoping for a windfall with silver discover that their coin trades below cost and that the buyer they aspire to, the jeweler, pays half of what they paid.

With silver at high levels and the pakillo stuck at four and a half euros, the question is no longer how much the coin is worth, but who decides at what price it sells. Is it one market, three markets, or a stall with two prices?