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2 Cruzados - Filipe I
| Issuer | Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1584-1598 |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Crowned royal arms of Portugal at center, flanked by the mint letter L (for Lisboa) to the left and the Roman numeral II denoting the 2 Cruzados denomination to the right. The shield displays the traditional Portuguese quinas arrangement. The circumferential Latin legend runs along the outer border, separated from the central device by a beaded inner circle. The overall style is characteristic of Iberian hammered gold coinage of the late sixteenth century. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Felipe II of Spain became Felipe I of Portugal following the 1580 dynastic crisis triggered by the death of Cardinal-King Henrique without an heir, leaving the Portuguese throne contested among several claimants. His military seizure of Portugal that year — formalized at the Cortes of Tomar in 1581 — inaugurated the Iberian Union, and this cruzado was struck under that arrangement. Portugal retained its own coinage, laws, and colonial revenues; the monetary system was deliberately kept separate from Castile's as a concession to Portuguese nobility whose support Felipe needed.
The cruzado denomination itself predates Felipe by over a century, established under Afonso V in the 1450s partly to fund crusading ambitions against North Africa.