10 Réis - Maria I

The Azorean copper issues of Maria I were struck specifically for the islands because Portuguese metropolitan coinage was perpetually in short supply in the Atlantic territories — a logistical problem that plagued the empire's outlying possessions throughout the eighteenth century. The Azores received authorization for their own local copper series precisely to plug that gap, which is why these pieces carry distinct island attribution rather than circulating as standard Portuguese colonial coinage.

The Gomes reference splits this type into two varieties (M1 02.01 and M1 02.02), distinguished by minor die differences that collectors of Portuguese coinage track carefully.