Dobra 16 Escudos - João V Lisboa mint

João V's reign coincided with the peak of Brazilian gold flooding into Lisbon, and the 16 Escudos denomination — the largest gold coin in regular Portuguese production — existed precisely because there was simply too much metal arriving from Minas Gerais to process in smaller denominations efficiently. The Casa da Moeda was operating at near-maximum capacity through the 1720s and 1730s, striking these heavy pieces in volume that would become impossible to imagine by century's end, when Brazilian output collapsed.

The 1731 date falls within the most productive window of this issue. Gomes J5 141 places it among the standard Lisboa strikings, distinct from the Minas and Rio de Janeiro colonial mint productions of the same type.