2.5 Escudos

Portugal's switch to copper-nickel for this denomination in 1962 was part of a broader currency rationalization program under the Estado Novo regime, as silver coinage became economically unsustainable to maintain in circulation. The timing matters: Salazar's government was simultaneously financing three colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, and the fiscal pressure of that military spending accelerated the removal of precious-metal alloys from everyday coinage throughout the 1960s.

The series ran through 1971, two years after Salazar's incapacitation following a stroke and his replacement by Caetano — the political transition left no mark on the coinage itself.