50 Centavos

Portugal's postwar copper-nickel coinage was minted under the Estado Novo dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar, whose regime had kept Portugal officially neutral during World War II while quietly profiting from tungsten sales to both Allied and Axis powers. The 1948 date places this issue in the early postwar stabilization period, when Salazar resisted the Marshall Plan's conditions long enough to negotiate terms more favorable to his government's autonomy before eventually accepting aid in 1948.

The Gomes reference R 08.01 designates this as the inaugural die variety of the type.