Catalog
12 Macutas - José I
| Issuer | Angola |
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| Year | 1762-1770 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Central field displays the crowned Portuguese royal arms, featuring the characteristic escutcheon with five bezants arranged in a cross on a shield, flanked by two elaborate scrolled supporters and surmounted by a royal crown of ornate design. The shield is rendered with fine hatching to indicate tinctures. The circular legend surrounds the central device along the rim, separated from the field by a milled border. |
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| Reverse lettering | AFRICA·PORTUGUEZA·1770 MACUTAS 12 (Translation: Portuguese Africa) |
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| Additional information |
Angola's macuta coinage was introduced by Portuguese royal decree specifically to address the chronic shortage of small currency in the colony, where commodity money — cloth, iron bars, and enslaved people — had long substituted for coin. The 12 macuta denomination sat at the upper end of this bronze-and-silver regional system, designed to articulate with local trade values rather than mirror metropolitan Portuguese coinage.
José I's reign saw the Marquis of Pombal effectively running the Portuguese empire, and the Angola coinage reforms of this period bear his administrative fingerprints. Surviving examples in any grade above Fine are genuinely scarce — colonial silver circulated hard in Atlantic trade conditions.