Peça - José I Lisboa, Bahia and Rio mint

The peça — sometimes called the "dobra" in contemporary merchant records — was the workhorse denomination of Portugal's Brazilian gold economy, minted from metal extracted almost entirely from Minas Gerais and funneled through the colonial casa da moeda establishments before much of that production shifted back to Lisbon. José I's reign saw gold output from the interior begin its long structural decline, meaning later dates in this range tend toward lower mintages. The Marquis of Pombal's administrative reforms during this period affected colonial mint oversight directly, though the coinage itself remained formally consistent across all three striking facilities.

Attribution between Lisbon, Bahia, and Rio de Janeiro strikes requires close attention to the mint mark — a detail that catalog images do not always resolve cleanly.