2 Xerafins São Tomé - José I Damão mint

José I's 1755 coinage for Portuguese India was authorized the same year the Lisbon earthquake devastated the metropole — an administrative coincidence that makes the survival of any precise mint documentation from this period remarkable. The Damão mint, operating under chronic supply constraints, produced gold xerafins in quantities that were never large, and the São Tomé weight standard governing this denomination had already been drifting from its theoretical norm for decades by the time these were struck.

Gomes records only a single die variety for this type.