5 Centavos

Portugal's switch to brass for small-denomination coinage in 1930 followed years of monetary instability under the First Republic, which had collapsed in the military coup of 1926. The Estado Novo financial reforms under Salazar — then serving as Finance Minister before consolidating broader power — prioritized stabilizing the escudo, and the new coinage series was part of that retrenchment. The Gomes reference CV 01.01 designates this as the first year of the type, making it the founding strike of what would become a long-running series.