Meaja - Alfonso X Leon

Alfonso X's 1281 monetary reform was a desperate measure. Decades of fiscal mismanagement, combined with the ruinous cost of his failed bid for the Holy Roman Imperial throne — a campaign he pursued from 1257 until its collapse in 1275 — had debased Castilian coinage so severely that public confidence had collapsed entirely. The meaja, a half-blanca fraction, was among the smallest denominations produced under the reformed system, intended to restore transactional confidence at the lowest level of daily commerce.

By 1281, Alfonso was also fighting his own son Sancho's rebellion, and royal minting authority was itself contested. Coins from this precise moment exist in an administrative limbo.