20 Escudos Salazar Bridge, Gold Pattern

The Salazar Bridge opened in August 1966 after five years of construction, financed partly through a loan from U.S. Steel — an arrangement that tied the longest suspension bridge in Europe at the time to American capital during the height of the Cold War. Pattern issues like this one were produced for ministerial and diplomatic presentation rather than circulation, which explains the survival of examples in essentially untouched condition.

The bridge was renamed Ponte 25 de Abril following the Carnation Revolution of April 1974, erasing Salazar's name from the structure two years after his death.