Pope John Paul II visited Cape Verde in January 1990 as part of a broader West African tour — one of the few papal visits to a Lusophone African nation. Cape Verde had only gained independence from Portugal in 1975, and the Catholic Church retained significant cultural weight in the archipelago despite the ruling PAIGC-derived government's nominally Marxist leanings during the 1980s.
KM#25a is the silver variant; a cupro-nickel version (KM#25) was struck for circulation, making this piece a collector-only issue from the outset.
Pope John Paul II visited Cape Verde in January 1990 as part of a broader West African tour — one of the few papal visits to a Lusophone African nation. Cape Verde had only gained independence from Portugal in 1975, and the Catholic Church retained significant cultural weight in the archipelago despite the ruling PAIGC-derived government's nominally Marxist leanings during the 1980s.
KM#25a is the silver variant; a cupro-nickel version (KM#25) was struck for circulation, making this piece a collector-only issue from the outset.