World coins chat: Guinea-Bissau & Portuguese Guinea

2 posts
Guinea-Bissau is a country at the western African coast between Senegal and Guinea-Conakry, with which it is often confused. Before independence in 1974 it was known as Portugese Guinea.

The Portuguese discovered Guinea already in the 15th century and used it mainly for coastal trading posts. Slave trading was the most important source of revenue, but by the 19th century that ended under British pressure. The Portuguese put little effort in the colony and the French claimed most of the surrounding lands, leaving only a tiny area to the Portuguese. At the end of the 19th century the Portuguese put more effort subduing the inland area and tried to develop a peanut industry that would cover the cost of colonial administration, but the colony never generated a profit after cost.

In the 1960's, an independence movement started an armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. The Portuguese fought colonial wars in all their colonies until the Carnation Revolution in 1974 ended the Estado Novo regime in Portugal. The new democratic regime wasted no time and granted independence to Guinea-Bissau that same year.

The resulting exodus of Portuguese and educated Guinese devastated the already weak economy. Political instability and poverty have contributed to the use of the country's infrastructure to traffic narcotics from South America to Europe. Guinea-Bissau is seen as a failed narco-state.

Portuguese Guinea used the Portuguese Real until its own colonial Real was introduced as paper money in 1908. In 1910 this was replaced by Escudos at a rate of 1000 Reis per Escudo. At that time an Escudo was worth around the same as the Mexican Peso. Coins for Portuguese Guinea were introduced in 1933. In 1974 the Guinea-Bissau Peso replaced the Escudo at par, at that time worth around 30 to the USD or 8 CFA per Peso. Only a few different coins were used for this quickly depreciating currency and in 1997 Guinea-Bissau joined the CFA region at a rate of 65 Pesos per CFA.

Guinea-Bissau and Portuguese Guinea coins are pretty hard find as the country has a small population and is very poor and isolated.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/guinee_bissau-1.html
Guinea-Bissau is quite small for an African country. It's just one of those tiny little Portuguese holdings that they managed to grab and keep for centuries (see also: Macau, Goa, etc.).


I have only one coin from Portuguese Guinea and it is not very exciting. In an attempt to bring uniformity to a large empire ruled by a small country, all of the modern Portuguese colonial coins look the exact same, differing only in their legends and shields.

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