W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

222 The Coins of Europe
The numismatic annals of Emmanuel (i49S~ l S 21 ) are
distinguished' by the expansion of the gold coinage, under
the auspices of increasing affluence and power, and of the
rise of Portugal, through the enterprise of its navigators, to
the dignity of a first-class European
state. From the concluding
years of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth
century we have to consider that the political
and in a substantial
sense the monetary climax was attained. The then
unrivalled portuguez or zo-cruzado piece in gold, which
perpetuated in its legend the geographical triumphs of Vasco
da Gama, the = silver portugiiez 400 reis, the tostao=ioo
reis, the vintem = 20 reis, a noble copper series, and certain
colonial money for external use, of which some account will
be found below, rendered the administration of John III.
numismatically conspicuous. We must call special attention
to the copper, because it embraced for the first time new or
higher denominations in the shape of pieces of 3 and 10 reis,
besides the ceitil (for Africa) and the 6 ceitil or real of
and inasmuch as on the meo vintem or 10 real we
copper,
encounter the curious reverse legend Rex Qvintvs Decimvs,
a computation dated forward from Alfonso I. This chronological
sequence was discontinued after Joao IV., whose
money, moreover, bears it
very occasionally; but Pedro II.
(1683-1706), during the term of his regency, indicates in
the legend the date reckoned from his assumption of vicarious
authority, somewhat in the old Mohammedan fashion, as on
a 10 reis of 1683 occurs Anno Sexto Decimo Regim\inis~\ Svi.
The ill-fated prince, who next to John III. occupied
the throne, employed all the existing denominations, and
introduced the engenhoso and diicatao, both in gold, in or
about 1561, the former of the utmost rarity, the latter
apparently a colonial piece,
of which the actual issue is
problematical.
There is no particular feature in the history of the coinage
till we come down to the brief reigns of Henry the
Cardinal and Dom Antonio, when we meet with the interesting
and rare series struck at Angra in the Azores, or
countermarked with A and a falcon, while the rest of