40 Réis - Luiz I Countermark 'BIG CROWN' over 1/2 Macuta - Maria II, Angola

Portugal's Atlantic island territories ran chronically short of small change throughout the nineteenth century, and the Azores repeatedly solved the problem through countermarking whatever copper was at hand. This piece began life as an Angolan 1/2 Macuta struck under Maria II, traveled an unlikely administrative arc, and was formally revalued and restruck with the crown punch under Luiz I to circulate as 40 Réis in the Azores. The double colonial origin — Africa resurfacing in the mid-Atlantic — is precisely what the Gomes reference documents in this series.