200 Escudos Independence

Cape Verde declared independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975, after years of armed struggle led by the PAIGC — a liberation movement that simultaneously fought for Guinea-Bissau's independence under Amílcar Cabral, who was assassinated two years before seeing either nation free. The escudo, retained from the colonial currency rather than replaced, has anchored the archipelago's monetary system ever since, pegged first to the Portuguese escudo and later, in 1998, to the euro at a fixed rate underwritten by Portugal.