1 Escudo Independence, Gold

Cabo Verde's 1985 independence commemorative gold issue marks a decade since the archipelago's separation from Portuguese administration in 1975 — an independence achieved without armed conflict on the islands themselves, though inseparable from the bloody Guinea-Bissau war that exhausted Lisbon's will to hold its African territories. The Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde governed both nations as a unified political project until the 1980 coup in Bissau severed that arrangement, leaving Cabo Verde to chart a singular path.

KM#23b distinguishes the .750 gold striking from the silver and other metal variants in this commemorative family — a relatively modest fineness for a gold issue of this period.