Alfonso X's monetary reform of 1281 was a desperate measure. Decades of debasement had made Castilian coinage nearly worthless, and the king — already in open conflict with his son Sancho and facing baronial revolt — pushed through a new tariff structure that reassigned official values to circulating fractions. The meaja, the smallest denomination in everyday use, was tariffed at half a dinero, and the "two points" designation distinguishes this emission from otherwise visually similar meajas by a privy mark difference that still generates classification disputes among specialists citing Álvarez Burgos.
Alfonso X's monetary reform of 1281 was a desperate measure. Decades of debasement had made Castilian coinage nearly worthless, and the king — already in open conflict with his son Sancho and facing baronial revolt — pushed through a new tariff structure that reassigned official values to circulating fractions. The meaja, the smallest denomination in everyday use, was tariffed at half a dinero, and the "two points" designation distinguishes this emission from otherwise visually similar meajas by a privy mark difference that still generates classification disputes among specialists citing Álvarez Burgos.