200 Escudos European Culture Capital

Portugal launched its European Capital of Culture 200 Escudos bimetallic series in 1991, issuing a new coin each year to mark whichever city held the designation. The 1994 coin honors Lisbon, which shared the title that year with nine other European cities in a uniquely crowded edition of the program — the result of the European Commission's decision to bundle multiple capitals for the single year rather than the customary sole designation.

The bimetallic format was relatively new to Portuguese coinage at this point, introduced partly to deter counterfeiting of high-circulation denominations.