The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in June 1494, divided the non-European world between Portugal and Castile along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands — a line drawn before either power fully understood what lay on either side of it. Brazil's eventual inclusion in the Portuguese sphere turned on that measurement, and historians still debate whether Portuguese navigators already knew the South American coast existed when the line was negotiated.
The .500 silver fineness places this squarely in INCM's commemorative output of the period, when rising silver costs pushed Portuguese issues toward lower alloy standards.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, signed in June 1494, divided the non-European world between Portugal and Castile along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands — a line drawn before either power fully understood what lay on either side of it. Brazil's eventual inclusion in the Portuguese sphere turned on that measurement, and historians still debate whether Portuguese navigators already knew the South American coast existed when the line was negotiated.
The .500 silver fineness places this squarely in INCM's commemorative output of the period, when rising silver costs pushed Portuguese issues toward lower alloy standards.