View source for Barcelor-Onor 1645-B O 2 tangas

[[Image:SB923-75234o.jpg|300px|thumb|Stack's Bowers September 2023 Collector's Choice sale, lot 75234]]
[[Image:SB923-75234r.jpg|300px|thumb]]

This specimen was lot 75234 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, September 2023), where it sold for $1,920. The catalog description<sup>[1]</sup> noted, "[[India|INDIA]]. [[India, Portuguese|Portuguese India]]. Barcelor-Onor. 2 Tangas, 1645-B O. Joao IV. NGC MS-64. A stunning and VERY RARE issue from a rather obscure Portuguese possession on the western Indian coast. This example is gorgeously toned to a mottled charcoal gray with silvery luster in the centers and deeper grays around the peripheries. Both well-struck and impressively preserved, the detailed shield on the obverse and St. Lawrence's gridiron on the reverse are razor-sharp. It is difficult to imagine a superior example; as such, collectors of Portuguese India should take note of this lot."

Wikipedia comments, <blockquote>"When Vasco da Gama landed in Calicut on the southwestern Malabar coast of India in 1498, the Vijayanagara empire was about to reach its apex. The Portuguese pursued their pepper trade farther south on the Malabar coast. In the decade after the fall of the empire, they decided as a commercial strategy to hedge their bets and to commence purchasing pepper from the Kanara region. During 1568–1569, they took possession of the coastal towns of Onor (now Honavar), Barcelor (now Basrur), and Mangalore and constructed fortresses and factories at each location.

Onor (Modern Honnavar) was located on the banks of the Sharavathi River, where the river widened into a lake, two miles (3 km) upstream from its mouth. Built strategically on a cliff, the Portuguese fort contained homes for thirty ''casados'' (married settlers). A natural sandbank kept out the large ocean-going ships, leaving the harbour accessible only to small craft. Approximately, 35 miles (56 km) farther upstream, the Portuguese maintained a weighing station at Gersoppa, where they purchased the pepper. During the latter part of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th, Onor not only became the principal port for the export of Kanara pepper, but also the most important Portuguese supply point for pepper in all of Asia.

Located some 50 miles (80 km) south of Onor, and a few miles up the Coondapoor estuary (now Varahi), was the town of Barcelore (now Basrur). Building their fortress downstream of the existing Hindu town in order to control any approaches from the sea, the Portuguese provided accommodation for 30 casados within its walls;[43] another 35 casados and their families lived in a walled compound at a stone's throw. Barcelore became a busy trading centre which exported rice, local textiles, saltpetre, and iron from the interior regions and imported corals, exotic yard goods and horses.

Fifty miles south of Barcelore was Mangalore, the last of the Portuguese strongholds in Kanara; it was situated on the mouth of the Netravati River. There too the Portuguese built a fortress and alongside it a walled town with accommodation for 35 casados families. Both Barcelore and Mangalore became principal ports for the export of rice, and during the first half of the 17th century supplied the other strategic fortalezas of significance to the Estado da India, the Portuguese Asian empire.[44][43] These included, Goa, Malacca, Muscat, Mozambique and Mombasa."</blockquote>

''Recorded mintage:'' unknown.

''Specification:'' 4.4 g, 0.917 fine silver.

''Catalog reference:'' cf. KM-A68 (listed under Goa); Gomes-22.01. 

''[[Bibliography|Source:]]''
* Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, ''Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed.,'' Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
* Alberto Gomes and Francisco Antonio Magro, ''Moedas Portuguesas e do Território Que Hoje é Portugal: Catálogo das Moedas Cunhadas para o Continentes e Ilhas Adjacentes, para os Territórios do Ultramar e Grão-Mestres Portugueses da Ordem de Malta, 6ª Edição,'' Lisbon: Associação Numismática de Portugal, 2013.
* <sup>[1]</sup>Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, ''September 2023 World Collectors Choice Online Auction - Ancient & World Coins,'' Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2023.

''Link to:''
* [[Goa 1643-G A 2 tangas]]
* [[Ceylon 1645 2 tangas]]
* [[Coins and currency dated 1645]]

[[Category:Selections from the Stack's Bowers 2023 Collector's Choice sale]][[Category:Coins of the Portuguese colonies]]