40 Réis - José I Countermarked 20 Réis, KM#175.1

By 1809, the Portuguese royal family had been installed in Rio de Janeiro for over a year following their flight from Napoleon's invasion of Lisbon. The colonial mint faced an immediate practical problem: demand for small change vastly outpaced the capacity to strike new coin. The solution was bureaucratically elegant — existing José I copper 20 réis pieces were countermarked and revalued upward to 40 réis, effectively doubling their face value without new production.

The countermark was applied at Rio. Pieces vary considerably in the placement and sharpness of the stamp, and host coin condition ranges widely since circulated examples were pulled directly from everyday use.