A Collection Of Coins From Portugal

Outstanding!

Looking good!

Most excellent!

D. All of the Above.

But if I have do pick one... the coin, of course.

That's a very interesting proof 2-1/2 euro coin. I find the design (including the slightly unusual fonts used) to be quite intriguing.

When I'm not on CCF or the paper money forum or an astronomy forum, I like to do searchs on ebay, I most of the time don't buy anything.

BUT....

Sometimes you find a coin/currency you need to have. And while you can call this coin a cherry pick, its not so much.

SOOO...

Today's coin is kind of rare. I mean really really rare, but since no records are kept, it could be 1 of 100 or maybe 1 of a 1000, either way its a very rare coin.

But it also looks familiar, and that is because a version of this coin is my current profile picture. In 1953 when this coin was minted an unknown amount was produced in a Matte finish, like the original Matte Wheat cent or Matte $20 Saint-Gaudens. The issue is that no records were kept of how many Matte coins were produced, so we just don't know.

I reached out to my local dealer in Portugal and he offered me a hefty premium over what I paid for it. He has had only 1 appear in the shop since 1986. PCGS only has graded 2 with mine being the top pop. I haven't found any graded by NGC.

Even with all the above being said, the coin is so rare that there are no price guides. I can't find any auction records or accurate price guides. Its hard to price an object that so few even know existed.

So why did I buy it. Well for 2 reasons, the price was crazy low and its a super rare coin. I like owning things that few people know about.

And here is the coin.





Nice + grade

And while I discussed the coin when I posted the regular version, to truly understand what the coin commemorates, one needs to understand a little about the economy of Portugal.

While whole books have been written ( I actually have read 4 books) about the Portuguese economy. The history of the economy can be summed up as follows:

Portugal for the majority of its history was composed of rural poor farmers and small richer cities. The climate was favorable for growing almost all types of fruits, vegetables, livestock and wine that there was never a need for large scale farming. Many rural poor farmers lived next to a small city that they could sell their produce at the farmers markets. The farmers market is so ingrained into the Portuguese economy that every city has a place for one. All were outdoors (other than Lisbon/Porto) until the late 20th century.

The other part of the economy, which was composed of the richer cities (basically from the 1500's all the way until the 1820's ) lived off the colonies. In the 1700's/Early 1800's there was so much gold and silver flowing to Lisbon that no one worked. The monarchy supported the dukes which supported the aristocracy that only poor people needed to work.

What this resulted in was that the Industrial Revolution that took hold in other countries never took hold in Portugal. This was all good (well not really) until Napoleon came to Portugal. The Monarchy left to Brazil, the dukes and aristocracy had to fend for themselves. This caused a little bit of resentment to the monarchy. So when the Monarchy came back in ~1820, the dukes and aristocracy wanted a say in the country. So we have 2 competing groups the Liberalist which wanted French and USA type democracy and the Absolutists that wanted a strong Monarchy. These 2 groups kept fighting it out between each other for 90 years.

Meanwhile the poor farmers are still poor.

Eventually the Liberalists, killed the reigning monarchs, and then deposed the last ruler and decided to take a stab at running the country. Which they did terribly. Resulting in the New State and the dictatorship under Salazar.

Salazar was born near Santa Comba (one of the poor rural farming areas). Based on everything I read about him, he was the smartest person in the room. He was able to attend Coimbra, mastered in Economics and at first refused to serve in the government, he only served to bring the Portuguese economy under control.

As the economy of Portugal grew and stabilized under Salazar, economic controls were implemented. Coming from an area of Rural Poor Farmers, he romanticized their image into one of country, family and rural values. But asking a local farmer they wanted to live in the city and have money. The slow economic growth can only work for so long, but then comes the Depression which didn't affect Portugal and WWII which did but in a very positive way because Portugal was Neutral so it's currency was desired.

After WWII, the European powers economy starting taking off, BUT Portugal didn't. They started falling behind. As Salazar was an economists by trade he loosened the economy (what this coin commemorates) and Portugal enjoyed economic growth of 5 to 7% for 2 decades, until the colonial wars stopped that.

And that is a lot of reading. Thank you for staying this long.