1 Macuta - Maria I and Pedro III

Angola's macuta coinage was a deliberate colonial monetary instrument, introduced by Lisbon to regularize trade along the Angolan coast where commodity currencies — cloth, iron, and enslaved people — had long dominated exchange. The macuta itself was an adaptation of a pre-existing local unit of account, co-opted rather than invented by the Portuguese administration. Copper was chosen precisely because its low intrinsic value relative to face value maximized seigniorage across the Atlantic.

The joint reign attribution to Maria I and Pedro III dates the earliest pieces to 1770, the year of their accession. Pedro III died in 1786, after which the type was retired and reissued under Maria's name alone.