2. The series of gold coins initiated by Alfonso XI. (1302-50).
It was in the reign of this latter King that the general movement of adoption of gold coinage first touched Spain. The earliest gold coins were Alfonso's doblas, subsequently known as castellanos. The weight of this coin has been variously assigned as 48 to a mark or 50 or 51.
Taking the tale of 50 to the mark, the weight per piece would be 92 4⁄25 grms. (= 4.60090 grms.) of 23 3⁄4 quilates fine (= .989 fine).
Pedro I. made gold doblas of the weight of 90 grs., and
this endured till the days of John I., 1379-90, who preserved the same weight but lowered the standard. Under Henry III. the standard of 23 3⁄4 quilates was again restored. For the movement of the gold coins subsequent to Ferdinand and Isabella, see the [Table].
3. The silver real first appears under Pedro I., 1350-69. It was issued at a tale of 66 to a mark, and 11 dineros 4 grs. fine.
Under Henry II. of Castile, 1369-79, these reals undergo extraordinary debasement, the standard being reduced to .279, .129, .060, and so on; but a recovery took place under his successor, John I., 1379-90, who returned to the standard of Pedro I., substituting for the debased real his own vellon money, under the titles of blancos and Agnus Dei, a money known later as blancas and maravedises de moneda blanca.
The restorer of the Spanish coinage was, however, not John so much as his son, Henry III., 1390-1406. By his ordinance of 21st January 1391, issued at the instance of the Cortes of Madrid, 1390, the blancos of John I. were reduced in equivalence to 1 coronado. Gold coins were restored to the tale and standard of Alfonso XI., and the silver real to those of Pedro I.
The vellon money, however, of this reign—the blancos in particular—present a confusion which has hitherto baffled the most learned. It has been computed that one hundred and thirty-two monies of various denominations circulated in Castile under this King.
In brief, the system from his day till the time of Ferdinand and Isabella may be thus tabularly expressed:—