1/2 Macuta - Pedro V

Angola's copper coinage of this period was struck in Lisbon for colonial circulation, issued under Pedro V — the young Braganza king who came to the throne at sixteen and died of cholera in 1861, just months after this type's issue window closed. The macuta itself was an accounting unit deeply embedded in the Angolan slave trade economy, its fractions used in transactions the Portuguese crown was, by this point, officially trying to suppress.

Copper issues for the African colonies were struck in small quantities relative to metropolitan coinage, and actual circulation was uneven — many pieces remained in coastal trading posts rather than moving inland.