2 Maravedis - Philip IV Pattern

The 1660 copper coinage reform under Philip IV was a desperate fiscal measure following decades of currency debasement that had sent the vellón coinage into freefall. Pattern pieces from this period document the crown's attempts to stabilize the small-change supply, which had been so thoroughly manipulated — restruck, countermarked, officially devalued multiple times — that domestic commerce had effectively retreated to barter in some regions. This piece is among those trial strikings produced as the administration worked toward the pragmatic of October 1661, which finally imposed a drastic revaluation.