| Mass | 3 [1] g |
|---|---|
| Diameter | 26 [1] mm |
| Years of minting | 1499–1504 [1] |
| Obverse | |
| Reverse | |
| Design | Cross of the Military Order of Christ and inscription IИ HOC SIGИO VIИCES [1] |
The indio was a silver coin minted by the Portuguese government as a currency to support trade with India. [2] There are only two recovered coins of this mintage, making it very rare. [1]
Following the discovery by Vasco da Gama, King Manuel I of Portugal ordered the indio, as well as the português, to be minted to support trade with India. [1] The indio was minted for less than five years, being discontinued prior to 1504 in favor of the tostão. [1]
According to Damião de Góis, the weight of the coin was ordered to equal the mass of the coins used by Italy, 3 grams. [1]
The reverse side bears markings from the Military Order of Christ, which King Manuel had also adopted as his personal insignia. [1]
There are only two recovered coins of this type. [2]
The first coin has been held in the National Historical Museum of Brazil, [1] which houses the largest numismatic collection of Latin America.
The second coin was found by the shipwreck hunter David Mearns who was leading the archaeological excavation of the Esmeralda. The Indio was found in a clump of Portuguese silver and gold coins. This recovery of this example, forged in 1499, [2] was announced in 2016 following excavation of the 1503 shipwreck off the coast of Oman, on Al-Hallaniyah island in the Khuriya Muriya island chain. This example was compared to the first using CT scan and authenticated by João Pedro Vieira, Curator of Coins and Paper Money with the Bank of Portugal. [1]
Vasco da Gama, was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the first European to reach India by sea.
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Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese navigator and explorer during the Age of Discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil. He died at sea, possibly off the coast of Mozambique, while returning from India in the 5th Portuguese Armada with Francisco de Albuquerque.
The year 1998 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Al Hallaniyah is the largest and most populated of the Khuriya Muriya Islands, which belong to Oman. It is located in the center of the group, eight kilometers east of Al-Sawda, the closest island, and the second largest of the group. The area is 56 square kilometres (22 sq mi). The only village is located on the flat western part, with a population in the range of 100 to 150. It is reachable by boat or plane. An airstrip is located nearby.
The mariner's astrolabe, also called sea astrolabe, was an inclinometer used to determine the latitude of a ship at sea by measuring the sun's noon altitude (declination) or the meridian altitude of a star of known declination. Not an astrolabe proper, the mariner's astrolabe was rather a graduated circle with an alidade used to measure vertical angles. They were designed to allow for their use on boats in rough water and/or in heavy winds, which astrolabes are ill-equipped to handle. It was invented by the Portuguese people, a nation known for its maritime prowess that dominated the sea for multiple centuries. In the sixteenth century, the instrument was also called a ring.
Portuguese maritime exploration resulted in the numerous territories and maritime routes recorded by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime journeys during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European exploration, chronicling and mapping the coasts of Africa and Asia, then known as the East Indies, and Canada and Brazil, in what came to be known as the Age of Discovery.
David Louis Mearns, is an American-born United Kingdom based marine scientist and oceanographer, who specializes in deep water search and recovery operations, and the discovery of the location of historic shipwrecks.
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The 4th Portuguese India Armada was a Portuguese fleet that sailed from Lisbon in February, 1502. Assembled on the order of King Manuel I of Portugal and placed under the command of D. Vasco da Gama, it was the fourth of some thirteen Portuguese India Armadas, was Gama's second trip to India, and was designed as a punitive expedition targeting Calicut to avenge the numerous defeats of the 2nd Armada two years earlier.
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The year 2013 in archaeology involved some significant events.
Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST) is a charitable trust founded in February 2011, which focuses on investigations into the maritime heritage of the United Kingdom and further afield, through historical and archaeological investigations. MAST uses its profits from contract work as well as donations to fund its charitable aims.
The year 2014 in archaeology involved some significant events.

Esmeralda was a Portuguese carrack that sank in May 1503 off the coast of Oman as part of Vasco da Gama's 1502 Armada to India while commanded by da Gama's maternal uncle Vicente Sodré. First relocated in 1998 and excavated by David Mearns in 2013–15, is the earliest ship found, as of 2016, from Europe's Age of Discovery.
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