Alfonso II of Aragon — the first king to unite Aragon and Catalonia under a single crown following his father Ramon Berenguer IV's death in 1162 — issued billon coinage at a moment when the Pyrenean territories were consolidating political identity through currency as much as through treaty. The billon itself reflects the monetary degradation common to twelfth-century Iberian issues, where silver content was progressively reduced as military campaigning against both Castile and the Almohads drained royal finances.
Alfonso II of Aragon — the first king to unite Aragon and Catalonia under a single crown following his father Ramon Berenguer IV's death in 1162 — issued billon coinage at a moment when the Pyrenean territories were consolidating political identity through currency as much as through treaty. The billon itself reflects the monetary degradation common to twelfth-century Iberian issues, where silver content was progressively reduced as military campaigning against both Castile and the Almohads drained royal finances.