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1 Dinheiro - Sebastião I Ship
| Issuer | Portuguese Malacca |
|---|---|
| Year | 1558-1578 |
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| Currency | Pardau (1509-1580) |
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| Reverse description | A schematic and stylised representation of a Portuguese nao (carrack) fills the field, depicted in a naive, flat manner typical of these tin-lead colonial issues. The hull is rendered as a series of concentric curved lines suggesting the ribbed body of the vessel, with a prominent central boss at the waterline. The upper portion depicts simplified masts and furled sails indicated by vertical and diagonal lines, while horizontal yardarms extend to either side. No legend is present; the overall execution is deliberately crude, consistent with the artistic conventions of Malaccan Portuguese coinage of the mid-sixteenth century. |
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| Mint | Malacca Mint |
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| Additional information |
Sebastião I never visited Malacca — or anywhere in Asia — yet his name circulated here in the pockets of spice traders and harbor workers for two decades. Portuguese Malacca operated its own mint almost entirely independently of Lisbon, striking calin coinage for a local economy where silver and gold were too valuable for petty transactions. Calin, the tin-lead alloy sourced largely from the Malay Peninsula itself, was essentially the only practical option for low-denomination exchange in the port.
Sebastião's reign ended at Alcácer Quibir in 1578, where he died without an heir, triggering the dynastic crisis that handed Portugal to Philip II of Spain two years later.