*5.2. Numismatics*

The first coins minted by Henry II were gold doblas featuring the image of the crowned king on a galloping horse and brandishing a sword on the front, and the crest of Castile and León on the back. This figuration corresponded to the concept of the medieval knight, as a Miles Christi, or soldier of Christ, defending the faith, but as the war depleted the coffers and it became imperative to sully the image of his eternal nemesis, Peter I, the currency evolved, losing value and favoring the idea of a pious king rather than a bellicose one.

According to Fuentes Ganzo, in the civil war, Peter I incurred serious debts when he had to hire Duguesclin's mercenary troops, a dilemma compounded by the devaluation of the currency. As of 1366, when the civil war began, reales de vellón coins, imitating silver, constituted a "formidable official forgery" [29]. Starting in 1369, when the war ended, a new coin was minted with a substantial change in its propagandistic objective, the old anagram being replaced with a crowned bust of Henry II, facing left on the front, and a cross occupying the entire back, thus projecting an image of the king as a Christian knight in contrast to his stepbrother Peter I, depicted as a cruel defender of the infidels.

The Archaeological Museum of Córdoba, which boats an extraordinary numismatic collection, houses several coins from the period of Henry II. Among them, the best preserved is a vellón coin produced at the Segovia mint, possibly after 1373 (Figure 4) Module: 180 cm. Thickness: 0.5 mm. Weight: 0.85 gr.

**Figure 4.** Vellón coin issued by Henry II. Billon coin. After 1373. Archaeological Museum of Córdoba. © Archaeological Museum of Córdoba, Spain: (**a**) Front; (**b**) Back.
