20 Dalasis Prince Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry never actually sailed on the expeditions he funded and organized — a biographical detail that surprises most collectors encountering coins issued in his honor. His real contribution was administrative: establishing a school of navigation at Sagres in the 1420s and systematically dispatching captains down the West African coast, including the Gambian coastline itself, which Portuguese sailors reached around 1455 under Alvise Cadamosto.

The Gambia's connection to this history is therefore genuine, not incidental.