1/4 Macuta Equipaga - José I

Angola's copper coinage of this period was produced under the Portuguese colonial administration at a time when the slave trade dominated the Luanda economy — the macuta system itself was designed partly to facilitate transactions in that trade, functioning alongside commodity currencies like cloth and iron. José I, for whom this piece was struck, was king during the catastrophic 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and the subsequent reconstruction demands on the crown treasury made colonial revenue streams, including Angolan copper issues, administratively significant.