Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
125 Réis - João IV Countermarked 1 Tostão
| Issuer | Portuguese Crown (for Brazil) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1663 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Coin alignment ↑↓ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A large plain cross pattée occupies the central field, set within an inner beaded circle. At the centre of the cross is a crowned royal cipher or ornamental knot. The letter P appears in two quadrants of the cross, indicating a mint initial. The surrounding legend VINCES·IN·HOC·SIGNO, accompanied by the mark PPPP, runs around the outer beaded border, the whole composition being typical of the hammered tostão coinage restruck for Brazilian colonial circulation. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Following Portugal's restoration of independence from Spain in 1640, the new Braganza regime faced chronic silver shortages in Brazil and lacked the infrastructure to strike fresh colonial coinage quickly. The solution was brutal in its pragmatism: existing Spanish colonial reales and worn Portuguese tostões were countermarked and revalued, forcing currency into circulation by royal decree rather than by minting it. João IV's 1663 countermark program was among several such emergency measures applied to whatever silver was already in Brazilian hands.
The wide weight range on surviving examples reflects exactly this — the host coins are not uniform, and authentication hinges on the countermark punch itself rather than the planchet.