Portugal's colonial coinage for Mozambique continued well into the late Estado Novo period, outlasting Salazar himself — he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1968 and died in 1970, never learning the regime had quietly replaced him. These pieces circulated through the final, increasingly unstable years of colonial rule, when the Frelimo insurgency had been grinding through the northern territories since 1964. Independence came in 1975, effectively ending the practical life of any remaining examples in circulation.
Portugal's colonial coinage for Mozambique continued well into the late Estado Novo period, outlasting Salazar himself — he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1968 and died in 1970, never learning the regime had quietly replaced him. These pieces circulated through the final, increasingly unstable years of colonial rule, when the Frelimo insurgency had been grinding through the northern territories since 1964. Independence came in 1975, effectively ending the practical life of any remaining examples in circulation.