1 Pataca S.A.R. Coinage, Macao's Return to China

The 1999 Pataca marks Macao's handover to China on December 20th of that year, ending 442 years of Portuguese administration — the longest continuous European colonial presence in Asia. Portugal had established the settlement in 1557 as a trading post, and the territory functioned for centuries as the primary gateway for silver flowing between the Americas, China, and Japan.

The Monetary Authority of Macao, established in 1989 partly to manage the transition, continued issuing Pataca coinage after the handover under the new S.A.R. framework, an arrangement guaranteed for fifty years under the "one country, two systems" policy.