20 Réis - Maria I Small Type, Lisbon Mint

By 1799, Maria I had been declared legally incapacitated and her son João was governing as Prince Regent — making this one of the final issues struck nominally in her name before the regency became the practical reality of Portuguese administration. The "Small Type" designation distinguishes this from the earlier, heavier fabric of her copper coinage, a reduction driven by chronic shortages of colonial copper supply and persistent pressure on the metropolitan mint to economize on base metal.

Bentes 304 is not a rare attribution, but circulated survivors in problem-free condition are genuinely scarce — Portuguese copper of this period suffered badly in the damp Atlantic climate.