500 Reais - Sebastião I Lisboa mint

Sebastião I came to the throne at age three in 1557 and ruled under regency until 1568 — but the coins struck in his name during the 1560s already bore the full apparatus of royal authority. This issue funded a court perpetually oriented toward crusade, culminating in Sebastião's catastrophic personal campaign against Morocco. At the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in 1578, the king died without an heir, extinguishing the Aviz dynasty and setting off the succession crisis that delivered Portugal into sixty years of Spanish Habsbururg rule.

The Lisboa mint's gold output in this period drew heavily on Atlantic trade revenues, particularly from Brazil and the Estado da Índia spice routes.