8 Xerafins - Maria I and Pedro III Goa mint

Pedro III died in May 1786, which gives this issue a hard terminus: pieces struck after that date bear only Maria I's authority despite the joint regnal titles still appearing on the coinage. The Goa mint had operated intermittently under Portuguese control since 1510, and by the 1780s its gold output was increasingly constrained by the shrinking footprint of Estado da India — the once-vast network of Portuguese trading posts along the Indian Ocean coast had been reduced to a handful of enclaves.

The xerafim as a denomination had deep roots in pre-Portuguese Goan monetary practice, the name itself derived from the Arabic ashrafi.