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

520 The Coins of Europe
Fernando I.
(1367-83) multiplied the denominations, and
improved the style of the coinage. He continued the dobra
and the tornez, and struck in the more precious metal the
gentil= about | of the dobra, as well as the barbuda, grave, and
These
forte, each = 3 dinheiros, and the pilarte
= 2 dinheiros.
latter pieces in the baser metal presented the novel feature,
discontinued since the time of Sancho I.,
of a reverse legend :
Si Dominns MiJii Adiutor Non Timcbo, and one variety of
the forte marks the earliest appreciable effort to display on
the money a portrait of the ruler. But perhaps the most
important monetary reform in this reign was the conception
of the real= 10 dinheiros, and though differing in style
and pattern from the tornez, resembling
it in a double
circle on obverse which admitted the yet more copious
Fecit Celum Et
motto Auxiliuui Meum A Domino Qui
Terrain, which encompasses F.R. crowned in the field.
The earliest issues of this piece by Fernando I. and Joao I.
are as rare as those of later monarchs are comparatively
common.
During this and many subsequent reigns the Portuguese
continued to recognise certain Castilian and even French
denominations, and we have not to note any new national
types, other than varieties, till we come to the accession of
Duarte or Edward I.
(1433-38) and meet for the first time
with the escudo di onro of
92^ gr. a piece resembling the
dobra in weight and diameter, but inferior in fineness or
standard, and by reason of its unpopularity among foreign
traders eventually withdrawn. The obverse has E, crowned,
and the reverse the shield, crowned, both in a tressure. It
1
is a coin of the highest rarity. The same prince, in the
course of his brief term of rule, authorised many regulations
a reference to the
touching the coinage, as may be seen by
pages of Fernandes, but made no other additions to the
existing supply beyond the undoubtedly very
valuable one
1
Indeed Fernandes,
" Memoria, 1856, p. 79, says: Nunca vimos os
Escudos, este exemplar (the one described and figured in the text) foi copiado da
"
Hist. Genfealogica] referring to the Genealogical Histoiy of the Royal House of
Portugal by De Sousa, 1738, where several coins, not at present recovered, are
engraved from the originals in the cabinet of the Marquez d'Abrantes.