Peter II of Aragon — crowned King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona in 1196 — is better remembered for his death at the Battle of Muret in 1213, where Simon de Montfort's crusading forces destroyed the Aragonese-Catalan army and effectively ended Occitan ambitions south of the Pyrenees. These small billon issues, struck at Barcelona under comital authority, were circulating at precisely the moment Peter was maneuvering politically between Rome and the Albigensian crisis, having submitted Aragon as a papal fief to Innocent III in 1204.
The .330 fineness reflects the steady debasement of Barcelona billon across the twelfth century — a monetary slide well documented in surviving comital registers.
Peter II of Aragon — crowned King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona in 1196 — is better remembered for his death at the Battle of Muret in 1213, where Simon de Montfort's crusading forces destroyed the Aragonese-Catalan army and effectively ended Occitan ambitions south of the Pyrenees. These small billon issues, struck at Barcelona under comital authority, were circulating at precisely the moment Peter was maneuvering politically between Rome and the Albigensian crisis, having submitted Aragon as a papal fief to Innocent III in 1204.
The .330 fineness reflects the steady debasement of Barcelona billon across the twelfth century — a monetary slide well documented in surviving comital registers.