10 Centavos

By 1973, Portuguese Guinea was effectively a lost cause for Lisbon. The PAIGC had declared independence unilaterally in September of that year and already held roughly two-thirds of the territory. Aluminum coinage for a colonial administration in its final months was, at minimum, an act of institutional stubbornness — these pieces circulated, if at all, in a colony that had already functionally ceased to exist under Portuguese control.

Guinea-Bissau was formally recognized internationally within months of this issue's striking.