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Vintém - Pedro II Porto mint
| Issuer | Portugal |
|---|---|
| Year | 1688-1706 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.86 g |
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| Obverse description | Central armillary sphere displaying a broad equatorial band, rendered in low relief against a plain field. The sphere is depicted with characteristic intersecting rings representing celestial circles, a design emblematic of Portuguese royal iconography of the period. The coin's milled border frames the device without a surrounding legend. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold Cristo (Christ) cross occupies the centre of the field, its arms extending nearly to the milled border. In each of the four quadrants formed by the cross arms appears the mint mark 'P' repeated, indicating the Porto mint, arranged as 'P P' above and 'P P' below. The cross design follows the traditional Portuguese cross pattée style associated with the Order of Christ. |
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| Additional information |
The vintém — nominally valued at 20 réis — was among the smallest silver denominations in regular Portuguese circulation, and the Porto mint's output during this period reflects the crown's effort to maintain provincial coining capacity during the reign of Pedro II. Portugal's monetary system in these years was under sustained pressure from wartime expenditure tied to the War of the Spanish Succession, which Pedro entered in 1703 by signing the Methuen Treaty with England, committing Portuguese silver to an alliance that would reshape Atlantic trade for generations.
Porto struck in smaller volumes than Lisbon, and survivors attributable to this mint are correspondingly scarcer in the market.