5 Escudos Prova

Prova coins from Portuguese colonial Mozambique occupy an awkward documentary niche — struck as pattern or proof submissions for metropolitan approval in Lisbon, many never advanced to circulation issues. The 1935 5 Escudos Prova is precisely that: a submission piece produced under the Estado Novo administration of Salazar, whose colonial monetary policy tightly controlled what circulated in the overseas territories. Approval from Lisbon was required before any new type entered production, and rejection was not uncommon.

The Gomes reference R E6.01 places this firmly in the rarest tier of Mozambican colonial numismatics. Surviving examples are almost exclusively in institutional or advanced specialist collections.