Cornado is the common name of several Castilian coins made of

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

billon Billon may refer to: * Billon (alloy), a metal alloy containing mostly copper or bronze with small quantity of silver People *Claudius Billon (1896–1944), French air force officer *Jean-Louis Billon (born 1964), Ivorian politician *Jonathan Le ...

(an alloy of

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

and copper), minted from the time of

Sancho IV of Castile Sancho IV of Castile (12 May 1258 – 25 April 1295) called the Brave (''el Bravo''), was the king of Castile, León and Galicia (now parts of Spain) from 1284 to his death. Following his brother Ferdinand's death, he gained the s ...

(13th century) until that of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

(16th century). The name ''cornado'' was derived from the fact that the coin's

obverse The obverse and reverse are the two flat faces of coins and some other two-sided objects, including paper money, flags, seals, medals, drawings, old master prints and other works of art, and printed fabrics. In this usage, ''obverse'' ...

depicted the crowned head of the king. In 1286, ten cornados were equivalent to one

maravedí The ''maravedí'' () or ''maravedi'' (), deriving from the Almoravid dinar (), was the name of various Iberian coins of gold and then silver between the 11th and 14th centuries, and the name of different Iberian accounting units between the 11t ...

, and eight cornados to a . Later versions were coined with a lower alloy quality. This led to the proverb ''no vale un cornado'', equivalent to the English expression "not worth a

farthing Farthing or farthings may refer to: Coinage *Farthing (British coin), an old British coin valued one quarter of a penny ** Half farthing (British coin) ** Third farthing (British coin) ** Quarter farthing (British coin) *Farthing (English c ...

References

{{Reflist Medieval currencies Modern obsolete currencies Coins of Spain