1 Centavo Vila Real De Santo António

Vila Real de Santo António is one of the few Portuguese towns built entirely to a grid plan, laid out by the Marquis of Pombal's administration in 1774 in a matter of months. That administrative precision did not extend to its early twentieth-century finances. Municipal chambers across Portugal issued low-denomination cédulas during the 1920s to address a chronic shortage of small coinage — the national treasury simply could not keep fractional currency in circulation fast enough for local commerce.

This 1 centavo piece is among the smallest denominations produced by any Portuguese municipal issuer, worth so little by the inflationary standards of 1922 that its practical life was probably brief.