A Collection Of Coins From Portugal

Nice coin, hfjacinto.

Great looking coins, hfjacinto.

Last one of the discovery series, this one features the first Portuguese voyage to Australia.

Obverse
Shield of Portugal & globe, or armillary spere, date, value and name of the country below.

Reverse
3 ships, caravelles, sailing left over a map and a silhouette of Australia. The date refers to the controversial discovery and survey of Australia by Portuguese sailor Cristóvão de Mendonça long before the Dutch Janszoon in 1606.

Issuer: Portugal
Political regime: Third Republic (1974-date)
Type: Non-circulating coins
Year: 1995
Value: 200 Escudos (200 PTE)
Currency: Escudo (1911-2001)
Composition: Silver (.925)
Weight: 26.5 g
Diameter: 36 mm
Orientation: Coin alignment
Demonetized:28 February 2002
References: KM 863a
Mintage: 20,000




For 6 euros over the bullion price of 4 coins, I think this was a great price. And I even got a case with the 6 euros.

Nice coins, hfjacinto, and triggersmob.

There is some controversy on who actually discovered Australia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theor...?wprov=sfti1

Today's coin is a 1928 10 Escudos.

Issuer: Portugal
Issuing regime: Second Republic (1926-1974)
Type: Circulating commemorative coins
Year: 1928
Value: 10 Escudos (10 PTE)
Currency: Escudo (1911-2001)
Composition: Silver (.835)
Weight: 12.5 g
Diameter: 30 mm
Orientation: Medal alignment
Demonetized: Yes
References: KM579
Mintage:200,000

This coin commemorates the Battle of Ourique which took place on 25 July 1139, in which the forces of Portuguese count Afonso Henriques (of the House of Burgundy) defeated those led by the Almoravid governor of Córdoba, Muhammad Az-Zubayr Ibn Umar, driving the Moors from Northern Portugal.

Nice coin, hfjacinto. But why commemorate something in 1928 that happened 789 years before? Why not wait until the 750th or 800th anniversary?

You got a very very nice Batalha de Ourique commemorative. Many lack the fine detail in the mail shirt. Mine is about the same and I had to pick among many.




I can explain. Portuguese commemorative coins used to be minted to finance specific things with the profits.The 1928 10 escudos was minted to finance a monument to the battle. There had been a military coup in 1926 and Portugal was going through the commemorations of origins typical of those decades in europe. But the state was almost broke. So they issued a commemorative with a higher face value than the silver it contained. It had the same silver as the 50 centavos issued in 1912 to 1918.

The silver escudo and centavos had been withdrawn from circulation the population because the country joined the first world war and got broke in it. The value of the silver in the coins went above the face value in the end of 1918. Always a terrible idea to participate in any unnecessary war.

The series hfjacinto showed previously were issued to finance the commemorations of the portuguese discoveries in the decade of 1990.