11/2 Bazarucos - Maria I Dio mint

Maria I's copper coinage for Portuguese India was struck at the Goa mint under increasingly strained colonial administration — by 1799, Lisbon's grip on its Indian territories was being tested by both Maratha pressure and the broader disruptions of the Napoleonic period in Europe. The bazaruco, a denomination with roots in the Indo-Portuguese monetary system stretching back to the sixteenth century, persisted largely because local bazaar trade demanded small change that silver and gold could not practically serve.

The "Dio" attribution in Gomes M1 01.01 distinguishes this from related Goa-struck types in the same series.