100 Réis - Carlos I

Carlos I's reign was already under severe strain by 1900 — republican agitation was intensifying, the treasury was chronically indebted, and his government had just emerged from the embarrassment of the 1890 British Ultimatum, which forced Portugal to abandon territorial ambitions in Africa and triggered a brief but destabilizing financial crisis. These copper-nickel coins circulated into a Portugal that was visibly losing confidence in its monarchy. Carlos himself would be assassinated in Lisbon in February 1908, making his coinage a relatively compressed series.