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100 Escudos Discovery of Azores, Gold
| Issuer | Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda (INCM) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
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| Reference(s) | KM#648b, Gomes#R81.04 |
| Obverse description | The Portuguese national coat of arms is displayed prominently to the right of centre, featuring the traditional escutcheon charged with five blue shields in cross formation and bordered by seven castles, set against a polished field. Radiating geometric lines forming a network pattern — reminiscent of cartographic or armillary motifs — fill the left portion of the field, alluding to the Age of Discovery. The legend REPÚBLICA PORTUGUESA curves along the upper left periphery, while the denomination 100$00 appears in the lower field. The engraver's signature A. MARINHO is inscribed vertically at the right, alongside the mint mark of INCM. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Reeded |
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| Additional information |
Portugal's commemorative gold program of the late 1980s tied directly to the quincentennial cycle running from 1988 through 1994, marking each significant event in the Age of Discovery on or near its 500-year anniversary. The Azores entry commemorates the Portuguese arrival in the archipelago, conventionally dated to around 1427, though the historical record is murkier than the clean commemorative calendar implies — Flemish and Genoese cartographers had sketched versions of the islands decades before any documented landing, and the question of who actually got there first remains genuinely unresolved among historians.
The .917 fineness places this squarely in the crown gold standard long favored by INCM for prestige issues. Mintage for the gold variant was tightly controlled relative to the silver and base metal strikings in the same KM#648 family.