1 Tanga Counterstamped

Portuguese Ceylon's counterstamped tanga issues of the mid-seventeenth century were a direct administrative response to chronic shortages of acceptable coinage in Goa and the Estado da India's eastern territories. Rather than striking entirely new coin, Portuguese authorities counterstamped existing silver — often locally circulating pieces — to authorize their use at a fixed tariffed value. KM#54 represents this practice applied to the tanga denomination, a unit deeply embedded in the Goan monetary system inherited from pre-Portuguese Konkan trade.

The 1640 date places this issue squarely within the period of the Portuguese Restoration, when the newly crowned João IV was reasserting Braganza authority after sixty years of Iberian Union under the Spanish crown.