Duarte I ruled for barely five years before dying of plague in 1438, making his coinage among the shortest-reigned issues of medieval Portugal. The Real Branco was the workhorse silver-billon denomination of fifteenth-century Portuguese commerce, and Duarte's issues continued the monetary framework established by his father João I rather than introducing any substantive reform — a reflection of a reign too brief and too consumed by the disastrous Tangier expedition of 1437 to attend to currency policy.
Duarte I ruled for barely five years before dying of plague in 1438, making his coinage among the shortest-reigned issues of medieval Portugal. The Real Branco was the workhorse silver-billon denomination of fifteenth-century Portuguese commerce, and Duarte's issues continued the monetary framework established by his father João I rather than introducing any substantive reform — a reflection of a reign too brief and too consumed by the disastrous Tangier expedition of 1437 to attend to currency policy.