As we cover more and more comics and pop culture at Gamereactor (don't miss our ongoing Comicon Napoli 2026 special coverage here), we better understand how its fandom was there first, many times before movies and games. Culturally, in the US, Japan, and some European countries, comic books and graphic novels (and manga) have crossed any cultural boundaries and are respected as much as the most acclaimed classic books. In Spain, the quintessential comic book always was Mortadelo y Filemón (Mort & Phil or Fred & Jeff in English), and its slapstick humour now transcended its pages into the real world.
As announced officially by the state's FNMT (the Spanish Mint), a new Euro coin will be coined in the country in limited quantities, all as part of a tribute to late Francisco Ibáñez, his work, and one of his recurrent jokes. The commemorative collection honouring Ibáñez consists of nine 1.5-euro coins to be released this year and to mark what would have been the author's 90th birthday, three years after his passing.
The collection celebrates Ibáñez's most iconic comic characters, featuring Mortadelo and Filemón, colleague members of the T.I.A. such as Professor Bacterio, Ofelia and Superintendent Vicente, plus other Bruguera classics like Rompetechos, Botones Sacarino, and Pepe Gotera and Otilio.
Despite the pun, these are collector's items, and can't be used as everyday spending money. As per the official announcement, each coin has a face value of €1.50, but will sell for €23.97, with only 10,000 units available. Previous Ibáñez coin editions sold out quickly and later rose in value on the resale market.
Ironically, Spain is coining a completely useless but adorably recognising intermediate coin between 1 and 2 euro while the US just stopped the production of the penny (1-cent coin) after 238 years to save significant production money, with the nickels and the dimes taking its place for more rounded figures.