Portugal 200 Escudos - Australia

[Triggersmob]

I'm loving this new coin I just added to my collection. It's a large crown-sized coin and looks really nice in hand.

[Unicorn]

Very nice Steve!

I must look up the story behind that one.

[accumulator]

Very nice coin !

[Triggersmob]

Very nice Steve!

I must look up the story behind that one.

When you do, please let us all know. Thanks

[Robster]

Beautiful coin, 200 Escudos is worth how much?.

[Unicorn]

Gee there's not a lot of info out there.

Krause is pretty much no more descriptive than the coin itself.

A few web pages have provided the following.

Golden Age of Portugese Discoveries - Australia

and

470th Anniversary of the Discovery of Australia

Wikipedia has probably the best info on the Theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia

[Sapyx]

I must look up the story behind that one.

It is part of an extensive series of 200 escudo coins commemorating Portuguese exploration and discovery. The dates on the coin, 1522-1525, are the dates of the largely conjectural Cristóvão de Mendonça expedition to Australia. It's related to the Dieppe Maps, the Mahogany Ship and similar "evidence", but the Portuguese discovery of Australia is not an undisputed scientific fact. Wikipedia, for what it's worth.

This hasn't stopped the Portuguese making a coin about it.

Beautiful coin, 200 Escudos is worth how much?.

Portugal no longer uses escudos; they were one of the founding user-member-states of the euro in 2002. At the time of introduction of the euro there were almost exactly 200 escudos to the euro. Escudo coins, however, are no longer exchangeable for their face-value-equivalent in euros, so their value now is purely numismatic. NGC database page for this coin.

[Nevol]

A bit of info from Numista.
http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces11208.html

[Triggersmob]

Thanks for the info guys, I haven't had a chance to look it up yet.