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V Reais - Sebastião I
| Issuer | Kingdom of Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1560-1578 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Real (1517-1835) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse displays a large Roman numeral V (for five réis) prominently in the center of the field, enclosed within an inner circle or partial border. A small fleur-de-lis or decorative mark appears to the left of the numeral. The surrounding peripheral legend, struck in Latin capitals, identifies the king's regnal number. The flan is irregular in shape, as is characteristic of hammered copper coinage of 16th-century Portugal, and the strike shows typical flatness and die shift consistent with the production methods of the Lisbon Mint of this era. |
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| Additional information |
Sebastião I came to the Portuguese throne at age three in 1557, and these copper reais circulated through a reign defined by regency, Jesuit education, and an increasingly messianic obsession with crusade in North Africa. The coins were struck at a moment when Portugal's imperial finances were straining badly — silver from the Estado da India was unreliable, and copper fractional currency bore the practical weight of everyday commerce that bullion coinage could not.
The reign ended at Alcácer Quibir in 1578, where Sebastião died without an heir at roughly 24, triggering the succession crisis that delivered Portugal into the Spanish Habsburg union two years later.