The português, portuguez, or golden Portuguese, was a high-value 16th century Portuguese gold coin, in fact the most valuable coin in Europe at the time it was issued. Commissioned by King Manuel of Portugal to commemorate the Portuguese Empire and Discoveries, it was first minted shortly before the voyage of

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

, who carried some in his expedition to India in 1497. It weighed 35 grams and was worth 10 gold ''cruzados'' or

ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

s. On the obverse it featured the coat-of-arms of Portugal, around which a Latin rendering of the Portuguese royal title was inscribed, and on the reverse the cross of the Order of Christ and the Latin inscription ''In Hoc Signo Vinces'' ("By This Sign You Shall Triumph"). It was intended as a symbol of prestige and to be used in large commercial transactions rather than everyday use, particularly for the purchase of spices in Asia, and remained in issue throughout the reign of Manuel's son and successor, John III, but it was discontinued in 1555. Approximately 400,000 golden Portuguese are estimated to have been struck between 1500 and 1538, equivalent to 14.2 tons in gold. In November 2011, the government of Portugal issued 150,000 commemorative replicas of the português, worth 7,50 euro.

Portugalesers

The português attained such international prestige, particularly among the rich commercial cities of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

, that many realms and cities in northern Europe started minting their own versions of the coin, henceforth dubbed ''portugalesers'' or ''portugalösers'', worth 2,5 to 10 ducats. Often they retained the iconic Cross of Christ. Long after they had been discontinued in Portugal, these variants remained in issue in Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland or Sweden until the 17th century. In the Netherlands, the cities of

Deventer Deventer (; Sallaans dialect, Sallands: ) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Salland historical region of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel, ...

and

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

struck portugalesers between 1640 and 1641 to trade for sugar grown in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil (; ), also known as New Holland (), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas. The main cities of the colony were the c ...

.Trigueiros, ''The Numismatist'', April 2016, p.48 The city of Hamburg in particular minted a large number of them between 1553 and 1560, and since 1676 have been issued as commemorative medals, a tradition which it maintains to this day, awarding them to local citizens for meritful services to the city.

References

{{reflist * António M. Trigueiros:
The Portugalöser in the Netherlands and Dutch Brazil
' in ''The Numismatist'', volume 129, April 2016 issue. * The E-Sylum:

'
D.Manuel
- Coins issued during the reign of King Manuel of Portugal, in the site of the Museu Casa da Moeda in Lisbon (In Portuguese)
D.João III
- Coins issued during the reign of King John III of Portugal, in the site of the Museu Casa da Moeda in Lisbon (In Portuguese) Coins Gold coins Numismatics Currencies of Portugal Modern obsolete currencies