Ceitil - João III Group 8 - Castle with multiple layer high wall

The ceitil was among the lowest denominations in the Portuguese monetary system, originally introduced in the fifteenth century and named — most plausibly — after Ceuta, the North African garrison city whose occupation demanded a constant supply of low-value coin for soldier pay and local trade. By João III's reign the denomination had already been circulating for over a century, and these later copper pieces were struck in enormous, poorly documented quantities to feed the expanding Atlantic and Indian Ocean trade networks where small change was chronically short.

Group 8 is distinguished by the castle's multi-layered high wall rendering, a die characteristic that helps separate it from the several other ceitil groups attributed to João III's long reign of 1521–1557.