Excellent medium. Period of the Catholic Monarchs

Excellent medium. Period of the Catholic Monarchs, Seville. After 1497.
Gold.
1,7 gr.

A gold ducat or excellent with an effigy of the Catholic Monarchs on the obverse. The Catholic Monarchs will promote a series of economic measurements tending to obtain a stable and perfectly defined numeraire to put an end to the chaotic problems of the Castilian currency that had characterized the reign of Enrique IV. Of all of them, the most important will be the one developed by the Pragmatic of Medina del Campo, dated June 13th, 1497. In it, the monetary policy of the Catholic Monarchs was perfectly defined, oriented -from this moment on- towards purely European rates and values. The new gold coins adopted the metrology of the Venetian ducat, abandoning the gold standard of Muslim origin (the dobla) which had dominated the late medieval monetary systems. The new gold coin, the ducat or excellent of the pomegranate, -so called because its coat of arms contained the symbol of the recently conquered Nasrid kingdom-, was a strong and competitive coin that circulated in the main commercial centers of the old continent, being widely accepted in the financial circuits of the time due to its high quality: a grade of 23 and ¾ carats (989 thousandths of a carat). Pieces of one quarter, half, one, two, five, ten, twenty and fifty ducats were minted. This ducat or excellent of the pomegranate had a size of 65 ? pieces per frame at a weight of ± 3.5 grams and a value equivalent to 375 maravedis.