When we think of colonial empires, often Portugal is not the first country to come to mind. But in fact, the Portuguese Colonial Empire was the longest running empire in history. As a result, Portuguese coins actually span from around the world and throughout hundreds of years. Every week there are hundreds of coins to be found in our special Portuguese Coins auction. Today, we look at two different eras of the Portuguese Empire, and the amazing coins from each of them.
Lisbonense Coins and The World
The Portuguese Empire originated during the middle ages and spanned 5 centuries and 5 continents to become one of the largest colonial empires to have existed. Since the beginning of the empire the Government in Lisbon ordered for coins to be struck for all of the territories. That meant that Sâo Tomé and Principe, Brazil and Angola had their coins made at Rio, whilst Indian territories had their own specific gold, silver and copper versions of the Portuguese emissions. In 1498, the explorer Vasco de Gama had sailed all the way to India, where he established a colony named Goa. Goa was under Portuguese sovereignty until 1961, after which it was finally joined with the rest of the newly independent India. We've seen several coins typical of Goa in our auctions. Let's examine just a few examples closer.
Astonishing Goan Coins
The first example is an extremely fine silver rupia from 1845, upon which is the portrait of the Queen Maria II. Maria became queen in 1834, after a complex and aggressive succession crisis stemming from the death of her grandfather. She reigned until 1853, when she died during childbirth.
This brings us to the second example of Goan coins, an extremely fine silver rupia from 1857, displaying the face of Pedro V. Pedro was the King of Portugal for just 8 years, from 1853 to 1861, after which he died of Typhoid aged just 24. Both of these coins are very scarce in such good quality.
King for a Month
Now let’s travel 8,000km and find ourselves in Lisbon, 1827. At this very point in time, Pedro IV was king of the Portuguese Empire, however Pedro was only king for less than two months, after which he declared independence in Brazil, and became the sole emperor of Brazil. During this time only 1,713 ½ Peças were made, which is why the fact that one came up for auction at Catawiki is amazng!
Not only Portuguese coins can be found at our auctions, but also many exceptional coins from different geographical areas, so there is something for every collector. And if you’d like to sell some of your own amazing coins, you can register to become a seller here!