1/2 Xerafim - João VI Big armillary sphere, Goa mint

João VI ruled Portuguese India from Lisbon and then Rio de Janeiro — he spent the years 1807 to 1821 in Brazil following the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal, meaning this coin was authorized by a king governing a subcontinental colony from across the Atlantic. Goa's mint had operated with considerable interruption throughout the late eighteenth century, and the resumed silver coinage of this period reflects the Crown's effort to reassert monetary control over a territory whose commercial networks ran heavily on unofficial and foreign currency.

The xerafim denomination was specific to Portuguese India, rooted in the Estado da India's local accounting system rather than metropolitan Portuguese units.