1000 Dobras Soccer

São Tomé e Príncipe issued this piece as part of a wave of World Cup-themed commemoratives that flooded collector markets ahead of Italia '90 — the tournament that drew the highest global television audience of any sporting event to that point. Small island nations with negligible numismatic infrastructure frequently contracted external mints for such issues, producing coins that never circulated domestically and existed purely as foreign-exchange earners.

KM#48 is one of several denominations in the series, all struck to the same .925 fineness.