Ceitil - Sebastião I Group 3 - Without circumference on both sides

The ceitil was Portugal's lowest-denomination coin throughout the Age of Discovery, yet it was struck in enormous quantities to pay for the daily provisioning of ships, harbor workers, and colonial garrisons. Sebastião I came to the throne as a child in 1557 under regency, and the early coinage of his reign reflects the administrative continuity of his grandmother Catherine of Austria's government rather than any deliberate royal numismatic program.

The Group 3 classification — distinguished by the absence of a circumference line on both faces — represents a die simplification that likely reduced engraving time on what was already a high-volume, low-value production coin.