Blanca - Enrique IV diamond, Avila

The Avila blanca belongs to one of the most politically fractured mintings in Castilian history. In 1465, rebel nobles staged the "Farce of Ávila," symbolically deposing Enrique IV by dethroning a straw effigy of the king — and Ávila became the seat of the rival court of the boy-king Alfonso. By 1471, Enrique had reasserted nominal control, but the mint at Ávila continued producing debased billon coinage under conditions of severely compromised royal authority.

The chronic debasement of Enrique's billon issues prompted the monetary reforms codified at the Ordinance of 1471, which this piece postdates by a matter of months at most.