200 Escudos Macau

Issued to mark the 1996 handover countdown, this was part of Portugal's broader program of commemorative coinage produced through INCM during the final years of Macanese administration before the 1999 transfer to China. Portugal had governed Macau since the mid-sixteenth century, making it both the oldest and last European colonial possession in Asia. The escudo itself had a dwindling role in daily Macanese commerce by this point — the pataca remained the territory's primary circulating currency, leaving Portuguese-issued commemoratives largely in collector hands rather than pockets.