A fanciful etymology for the term pera holds that it was inspired by the Carlist Wars where Queen Isabel II was supposedly called La Perra (The Bitch) by her detractors, and thus coins bearing the image of Isabel II were supposedly called perras, which became pera. A less outlandish Spanish origin, if the term is indeed derived from Spanish, could be the Spanish coins of 10 and 5 céntimos de peseta (valued locally at 2 and 1 céntimos de peso) which were nicknamed perra gorda and perra chica, where the "bitch" or female dog is a sarcastic reference to the Spanish lion. Arguments against either theory are that the coins bearing the face of Isabel II were nicknamed Isabelinas and that the perra coins were only introduced to the Philippines in 1897.
