50 Escudos FAO

Issued under the FAO coin program, which ran from the late 1960s through the 1980s as a United Nations-backed initiative to promote agricultural awareness through circulating coinage. Cape Verde, independent from Portugal only since 1975, was still restructuring its monetary institutions when this piece was struck — the Banco de Cabo Verde itself had been established just the year prior to independence. FAO issues from small post-colonial states in this period were frequently struck in limited quantities and saw minimal actual circulation, distributed largely to collectors and foreign institutions rather than domestic commerce.