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1/2 Tostão - Sebastião I 3rd type
| Issuer | Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1573-1578 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | The Portuguese royal arms displayed at centre, consisting of the quinas (escutcheons charged with five bezants arranged in saltire) arranged in a cross formation within a beaded inner circle. The cross of five shields is rendered in the traditional Manueline heraldic style. A circular Latin legend surrounds the central device, separated from it by a toothed or beaded border, reading SEBASTIANVS . I . REX . POR, identifying the issuing monarch as King Sebastião I of Portugal. |
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| Reverse description | A plain Latin cross occupies the central field, struck in bold relief characteristic of hammered coinage. Immediately above the cross, three pellets (dots) are arranged in a triangular grouping, serving as a distinctive type mark for this emission. The cross and pellets are enclosed within a beaded inner border. The surrounding legend IN HOC SIGNO VINCES — meaning 'In this sign you shall conquer' — runs continuously around the circumference, referencing the Constantinian motto adopted by the Portuguese Crown as a statement of crusading faith. |
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| Additional information |
Sebastião I's reign saw Portuguese silver coinage increasingly strained by the financial demands of his obsessive ambition to launch a crusade into North Africa. The 3rd type half tostão was struck in the years immediately preceding the catastrophic Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, where Sebastião himself died without an heir, extinguishing the Aviz dynasty and triggering the Iberian Union that would hand Portugal to Philip II of Spain within two years.
Gomes 38 is the scarcer of the Sebastião half tostão types, found less frequently in fine condition than earlier issues — a function of the disrupted minting priorities of a crown spending heavily on a doomed military expedition.