Ferdinand II of Aragon — the same monarch whose patronage sent Columbus westward — ruled Majorca as a dependency of the Crown of Aragon, and these ducats were struck under his authority during the final years of his reign before his death in January 1516. The "small head" designation distinguishes this die variant from the contemporaneous large head type, a distinction first systematized by Crusafont in his corpus of Catalan medieval coinage.
Ferdinand II of Aragon — the same monarch whose patronage sent Columbus westward — ruled Majorca as a dependency of the Crown of Aragon, and these ducats were struck under his authority during the final years of his reign before his death in January 1516. The "small head" designation distinguishes this die variant from the contemporaneous large head type, a distinction first systematized by Crusafont in his corpus of Catalan medieval coinage.