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Unidentified and Mistaken Flags and Ensigns (Spain)

See also:

Spanish Flag With Centred Coat-of-Arms

image by Antonio Gutiérrez, date unknown

"Banderas y Escudos del Mundo" [a8m86] contains some historical and subnational flags of central and south America. Not very reliable, big mistakes (for instance, Spanish flag with centred coat-of-arms).

Santiago Dotor, 13 Apr 2000 & 23 Sep 2003

I guess that this incorrect variant is used also elsewhere, either from this source, from this source's source, or out of sheer coincidence.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 24 May 2003

Spanish European Presidency Flag or nationalist UFE?

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 May 1999

During the Sant Jordi 1999 celebrations, I saw a Spanish nationalist flag: white flag with letter "Ñ" in center. I believe the letter is red-yellow-red or only red.

Jaume Ollé, 25 April 1999

I think that was simply the emblem of the Spanish Presidency to the European Union (c.1996) on a bedsheet. The President of the European Union is chosen on a biannual rotatory basis among the prime ministers of the member states. When this happens, the country in question uses a certain logo to denote "it is their turn". In the case of Spain, the letter "ñ" was chosen as something unique to Spanish.

Santiago Dotor, 03 May 1999

I have made a reconstructed version of this, assuming the "ñ" is Arial Black lower case, approx. 2/3 hoist high, and centered.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 23 May 1999

The symbol used by Spain when it was our turn in the Presidency of the European Comunity was an "e" with the "~" (the symbol on the "ñ") over it. The background was blue, and the "e" was surrounded by 12 stars (like the European Union flag).

Gonzalo O'Kelly, 16 Feb 2000

Here is a phonecard with the "e~" logo on it, on a white background (that of the phonecard, by the way). The caption at the right reads Presidencia Española del Consejo de la Unión Europea i.e. Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Antonio Gutiérrez, 18 Feb 2000

The presidency of the European Union is taken by the Head of State (usually the Prime Minister) of each Member State for six months on a rotating basis. I still think that we are not talking about the same flag Jaume Ollé reported. The Spanish European Union presidency flag was blue (with yellow stars), this UFE is white; the Spanish European Union presidency flag had an "ẽ," this UFE has a "ñ." They are two completely different flags – no way Jaume Ollé could have confused these two. Please note this letter, an "e" with a tilde, is no Spanish letter but rather the country's initial (España) with a tilde on it. Spanish tend to regard this diacritical and the letter "ñ" as a symbol of hispanity, both in land and abroad.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 Feb 2000

As far as I know the Spanish European Union Presidency chose the "e~" symbol to be used in official papers but not intended as a flag though it might have been used occasionally. Its colour was dark red (note that each country has an identification colour within the European Union). The tilde was somehow big in comparison with the "e" to stress its presence and apparent contradiction. The font and colour are those shown in the telephone card, so I think the above GIF shoud be redrawn accordingly. I do not think the "ñ" flag ever existed.

I remember the design was specially made shortly after a conflict between Spain and the European Union arose when Spain tried to make it compulsory for all computers to be sold in Spain to bear the "ñ" character, something which was considered illegal by the EU because it was an offence against the freedom of circulation of goods within the Union.

M. V. Blanes, 18 Feb 2000

Spanish Flag With Brown/Green In Lieu Of Yellow/Red

image by Antonio Gutiérrez and António Martins-Tuválkin, 29 Feb 2004

I saw recently a very weird variant of the Spanish national flag: green-brown-green!...

This was the Park of Nations (Parque das Nações) in Lisbon, Portugal, on the grounds of Expo98. They have a row of flags there, of all countries and entities that participated in the exhibitions, with a small presentation of the flagged entity attached to each pole.

It bears assorted trivia and an image of the flag. Minor differences are not uncommon, such as, f.i., plain yellow for the bottom stripe of Armenia on the plaque below but dark orange hoisted above etc., but Spain with medium green for red and woody brown for yellow is a bit unheard of.

It is not sun-bleaching (other colors on the same plaque are normal and no other plaque shown the same kind of changes) and I'm sure I have never saw this before. FWIW, the CoA appeared to have the normal colors.

Could this be due to some inept attempt to implement the official CIElab specs, as mentioned in our page on the subject?

António Martins-Tuválkin, 29 Feb 2004

Sounds like someone accidentally mixed up a photographic negative with a slide when making the flag!

James Dignan, 29 Feb 2004

James' suggestion that this could be a photo negative for the background doesn't seem to be so: a plain triband of 1R + 2Y + 1R inverted to its negative color values is rather something like , or + 2B + 1B– , with medium blue for yellow and light blue for red.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 04 Jun 2009

Dodgy Banner of Arms

image by Eugene Ipavec, 03 Jun 2009

I bought a flag yesterday at a place called "Cutlery & Collectibles," with the coat of arms of Spain on it. Has anyone seen this type of flag before? It just had the castle, lion, etc..., no crown or pillars.

Juanito V., 14 Sep 2006

That's a banner of arms. As to what it is, I would say a fantasy item made up by some flag maker, considering how dodgy the elements (especialy the lion) look.

Marc Pasquin, 15 Sep 2006

Military UFE (Cádiz)

image by Santiago Dotor

A sky blue over dark blue flag with a white letter C in center is flown in the military dependencies in Cádiz castle.

Jaume Ollé, 21 Sep 1999

Spanish Flag With Black Star

image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 18 Jul 1999

While hitchhiking from Sweden to Portugal last August, I noticed an erroneous Spanish flag depiction, a regular flag with a large five-pointed star in the middle, instead of the coat-of-arms. I guess someone confused the former coat-of-arms's large black eagle for this star. It was depicted in a telephone booth's multilanguage instructions panel in a gas station on the highway Orange-Nîmes [France], quite near the Spanish border. The flags were black and white newspaper-style, with ink dots on a metallic background, and so the colors of my GIF are assumed, by comparison with the other, correct, flags.

António Martins, 18 Jul 1999

Spanish Flag With Two-Tone Yellow

image by Antonio Gutiérrez and Ivan Sache, 18 Oct 2003

The "Promenade des Ports du Monde" in Le Havre is the sidewalk of the Boulevard Georges-Clemenceau, between the entrance of the commerce port and the beach and along the marina. The Promenade is marked out with 25 national flags hoisted on tall poles. Each pole bears a rectangular shield on which the names of the country and port(s) are written. The ports are those which have commercial relationships with the port of Le Havre, including (as written on the shield) "Espagne – Bilbao, Vigo, Algeciras." The yellow field is darker than the square part around the coat of arms.

Ivan Sache, 18 Oct 2003