1/2 Tostão - Sebastião I 3rd type

Sebastião I inherited the throne at three years old in 1557 and spent his reign consumed by a fixation on crusading in North Africa. The 3rd type half tostão belongs to the final years before his disastrous campaign at Alcácer Quibir in 1578, where he led a Portuguese army into Morocco and was killed — along with much of the kingdom's nobility — leaving no heir and triggering the Iberian Union under Philip II of Spain just two years later.

The monetary output of these final years carries particular historical weight precisely because it ended so abruptly. Portuguese royal coinage under Sebastião effectively ceased with his death at 24.