Vintém - Manuel I º M ºL, plus º under M, Lisboa mint

The vintém was Portugal's workhorse small silver denomination during the reign of Manuel I, a period when Lisbon's mint was under extraordinary pressure to produce coinage for an empire expanding simultaneously into Brazil, West Africa, and the Indian Ocean trade routes. The sheer volume demanded by these new commercial frontiers meant dies were heavily reused, and the mintmark placement became inconsistent across the run — the º under M configuration on this piece is a specific die state documented by Gomes as his reference E1 29.