Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Xerafim - João V Goa mint
| Issuer | Portuguese India |
|---|---|
| Year | 1708 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Xerafim (1/2) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central field bears the crowned Portuguese royal arms, displaying a quartered shield with the traditional quinas (five escutcheons arranged in cross) and the bordure of castles, set within a beaded inner circle. The shield is surmounted by a royal crown in high relief. A circular Latin legend runs along the toothed or granulated outer border, partially worn but characteristic of João V coinage struck at the Goa mint. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central design features a cross pattée dividing the field into four quadrants, with the date 1708 distributed around the cross: numerals '1' and '7' in the upper left and right quadrants respectively, and '0' and '8' in the lower left and right quadrants. A circular Latin legend surrounds the design along the beaded border, consistent with Portuguese colonial coinage of the Goa mint. The overall style is characteristic of hammered coinage of the early eighteenth century. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
João V came to the Portuguese throne in 1706 at age seventeen, and the Goa mint wasted little time producing coinage in his name. The xerafim was the principal silver denomination of Portuguese India, its name derived from the Arabic ashrafi, a linguistic remnant of the trade networks Goa had absorbed long before the Portuguese arrived. By 1708, the Goa mint was operating under chronic pressure — silver supply from Lisbon was irregular, and local merchants frequently melted coin for bullion whenever the exchange rate made it profitable.
Gomes J5 80.01 represents the first year of type for this reign.