A powerful and noted king who propelled industry and developed the arts obviously has to have some impressive gold coins to match. And that’s exactly what King João V, absolutist monarch of Portugal from 1707 to 1750, got. The king left for posterity an extraordinary monetary series, which is regarded today to be the most important worldwide.
Born in Lisbon in 1869, King João V was not greatly involved in wars, apart from the War of Spanish Succession which he inherited from his father and was swiftly defeated in. Instead, he focussed on European relations, and grew Portugal to be a recognised land of prosperity.
In the mints of Lisbon, Porto, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mozambique, Goa, Daman and Diu, the monarch ordered the process of coining his new currency. These included the Dobrão, Half-Dobrão, the currency, the Half-Currency, the Quartinho, New Cross, the fold, the part, the half-part, the Shield, Half-shell and Cruzadinho. It was also at this period that the Fold 24 shells, the largest coin minted in Portugal and one of the largest in the world, was coined.
King João V was able to create all this opulence as a result of the gold and diamonds that regularly came from Brazil to Lisbon at the time. In 1712 alone, a total of 14,500 kilograms of gold arrived in the Portuguese capital; although in fact much of the wealth went into the hands of foreigners, and the British in particular, who held a treaty of alliance with the Portuguese.
This somewhat weighted treaty, however, didn’t diminish the King’s momentum. He became a patron of the arts, and in 1720 he established the Royal Academy of Portuguese History. João V died in 1750, at a time when Europe was already living in the Age of Enlightenment
João V, ordered coins to be minted all across world, but it was the currency of houses of Baia in Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais who created many of the “Johannie” rarities presented in this auction. The first of King João V’s coins to emerge were in Baia after the establishment of a 20% tax on gold mined in Brazil. In 1699, the currency house of Baia was transferred to Rio de Janeiro for a year, before being moved again to Pernambuco and finally ending up back in Rio in 1702. After 1714, even more gold was discovered in the Brazilian territories, so they decided to open up a second mint in Baia, followed by a third in the town known at the time as Vila Rica in Minas Gerais. It was in this third mint that the famous Doubloons series were coined.
In the D. João V Coins auction you can find many interesting Portuguese lots from this exciting era of coin production. For example, this gold coin of 6,400 reis from the year 1745 or this currency 24,000 reis d gold from 1725. But don’t take our word for it, check out the whole auction here. And if you’re a fan of Portuguese coins and have some you’d like to sell, you can sign up to become a seller here.