250 Dobras Independence

São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence from Portugal on July 12, 1975, after centuries of colonial rule on islands that had been uninhabited before Portuguese settlement in the 1480s. The new nation's first commemorative silver issues, struck in 1977, were produced for international collector markets rather than domestic circulation — the country's economy was far too fragile to absorb silver coinage, and the dobra itself had only been introduced at independence to replace the escudo.

KM#34 is part of a small suite of issues establishing the fledgling Banco Nacional's numismatic program, largely exported through European distributors.