Escudo - José I Lisboa, Bahia and Rio mints

José I's reign opened with the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which destroyed much of the Portuguese capital including significant portions of the mint infrastructure. Production was redistributed across the Brazilian colonial mints at Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, a logistical shift that explains the relatively wide variation in strike quality and surface texture found across this type — not carelessness, but the practical reality of wartime rebuilding and dispersed production.

The Pombaline reforms of the 1760s tightened colonial mint oversight considerably, and pieces struck after roughly 1763 tend to show more consistent edge treatment as a direct result.