5 Escudos

Portugal's wartime neutrality during the Second World War created unusual monetary conditions: the country accumulated significant foreign exchange reserves through tungsten exports to both sides, yet domestic silver coinage continued at a conservative alloy fineness rather than the higher .835 standard used in earlier Portuguese issues. The reduction to .650 silver was a deliberate fiscal hedge, not a wartime emergency measure — it had already been established before hostilities began.

The series ran through 1948 without alloy change, unusually stable for the period.