1/2 Enrique - Alfonso de Ávila Toledo

Alfonso de Ávila was proclaimed king by rebel Castilian nobles in June 1465 at the so-called Farce of Ávila, a staged deposition ceremony in which an effigy of the reigning Enrique IV was stripped of its regalia and knocked from a platform. The rebel faction — led by the Archbishop of Toledo among others — needed coinage to legitimize their claimant, and these gold pieces were struck to that end. Alfonso died in 1468, almost certainly of plague, before the civil war could be resolved.

The brief window of production makes this a genuinely scarce type. AB#842 covers the half denomination within this contested issue.