2.50 Euro 50 Years Constitution; copper-nickel

Portugal's 1976 Constitution — drafted in the immediate aftermath of the Carnation Revolution that ended nearly five decades of Estado Novo dictatorship — was one of the most ambitious founding documents of any post-authoritarian state, originally including explicit commitments to a socialist economy and the nationalization of key industries. Those passages were progressively softened through nine revisions, the most significant in 1982 and 1989, as Portugal aligned itself with European Community membership requirements.