The Belmira was an actual working vessel in the inter-island trade network of Cape Verde, where shallow-draft sailing craft remained economically essential long after motorized shipping had displaced them elsewhere. Cape Verde's monetary independence from Portugal, formalized with the establishment of the Banco de Cabo Verde in 1975, created space for a coinage program that deliberately drew on local maritime culture rather than colonial iconography. This series was part of that broader project.
Copper-plated steel replaced the earlier nickel compositions as a cost-reduction measure common across lusophone African issuers in the early 1990s.
The Belmira was an actual working vessel in the inter-island trade network of Cape Verde, where shallow-draft sailing craft remained economically essential long after motorized shipping had displaced them elsewhere. Cape Verde's monetary independence from Portugal, formalized with the establishment of the Banco de Cabo Verde in 1975, created space for a coinage program that deliberately drew on local maritime culture rather than colonial iconography. This series was part of that broader project.
Copper-plated steel replaced the earlier nickel compositions as a cost-reduction measure common across lusophone African issuers in the early 1990s.