Dinero 'Cornado' - Alfonso XI Avila

Alfonso XI struck these billon dineros cornados during a reign defined by near-constant warfare — most consequentially, the campaign against the Marinid sultanate that culminated at the Río Salado in 1340, the last major Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula. Military expenditure on that scale demanded sustained low-denomination output, and the cornado served as the workhorse of everyday Castilian commerce throughout the campaign years. The Ávila mint was one of several authorized under Alfonso's reorganization of royal minting rights, a consolidation that reduced private and ecclesiastical striking in favor of direct crown control.

Alfonso XI died at Gibraltar in 1350 — of plague, during his siege of the town — cutting short what had been one of the more militarily effective reigns in the kingdom's history.