1 Escudo Independence

Cape Verde's 1985 coinage program was the first substantial domestic issue following independence from Portugal in 1975, replacing the transitional currency that had carried over from the colonial period. The brass-plated steel construction reflects the economic constraints of a newly independent archipelago with virtually no industrial base and limited foreign exchange reserves in its first decade.

KM#23 is occasionally found with plating separation on circulated examples — a known weakness of the production method used at the time.