257, Lot: 636. Estimate $100. Sold for $160. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SPAIN, Castile & León. Alfonso VI el Bravo (the Brave). As King of Castille & León, 1072-1109. BI Dinero (19mm, 1.14 g, 11h). Toledo mint. Cross pattée / Chi-Rho; Λ-ω across field. ME 922 var. (double pellet stop); Burgos 3. Near EF, lightly toned.

The story of El Cid shares a great deal of history with this coin as it was Alfonso VI of Leon and Sancho II of Castile who exiled him following the war which raged between them. Cid, born Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, a Castilian nobleman, later became a mercenary leader among the Moors from whom he gained his name: al-Said, Arabic for ‘the lord.’