1000 Escudos D.João de Castro, Proof issue

João de Castro served as Viceroy of Portuguese India from 1545 until his death in 1548, and his reputation rested as much on his unconventional financial dealings as his military record. Famously, he pledged the hairs of his beard as collateral to the city of Goa in exchange for emergency funds to relieve the siege of Diu in 1546 — a gesture the Portuguese crown later repaid in full.

This Proof falls within INCM's extended commemorative program marking the approach of the 500th anniversary of the Age of Discovery milestones, a series that ran across much of the 1990s into 2000.