Portuguese India 1871 1/2 tanga
This specimen was lot 75480 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice Online Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, February 2025), where it sold for $840. The catalog description[1] noted, "INDIA. Portuguese India. Goa. 1/2 Tanga, 1871. Bombay Mint. Luis I. PCGS MS-62. This Mint State example offers an appealing adobe-patina throughout its fields and impressively bold design elements across both sides." This specimen is a one year type struck for the Portuguese colonies in India. Once extensive, Portuguese dominions had dwindled by the 1800's to the enclaves of Goa, Diu and Damao. Issues up to 1952 were based on the rupee (1 rupia = 16 tanga, 1 tanga = 60 réis) and struck at the British controlled mints of Bombay and Calcutta. The year 1871 saw the only complete series of copper minted, including the one tanga (KM 306), half tanga (shown here), quarter tanga (KM 304), 10 réis (KM 303), 5 réis (KM 302) and 3 réis (KM 301).
Recorded mintage: 50,063.
Specification: 19.4 g, copper, 32.3 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-305; Gomes-07.01.
- 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.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, February 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction - Ancients, World Coins & World Paper Money, David B. Simpson Medals & World Coins Part 1, Selections from the Richard Margolis Collection, and Selections from the L. E. Bruun Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
Links to:
- Goa 1869 rupia
- 1871 3 réis = 1/20 tanga
- 1871 10 réis = 1/6 tanga
- 1871 ¼ tanga
- 1871 tanga = 60 réis
- 1881 rupia
- 1882 meia rupia
- 1886 ¼ tanga
- Coins and currency dated 1871