100 Réis - Luiz I Countermark'CROWNED G.P.' over '1/2 Tostão, Portugal'

The "Crowned G.P." countermark — standing for Governo Português — was applied in 1887 to restamp Portuguese metropolitan coinage for exclusive circulation in the Azores, a measure designed to prevent the outflow of silver from the islands back to the mainland. The host coin, a half-tostão of Luiz I, was already in circulation before being recalled and punched. Finding examples where both the original strike and the countermark are cleanly applied is genuinely difficult; the punching process frequently distorted one or the other.