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4 CENTAVOS COIN - PORTUGAL - PERSONIFICATION OF REPUBLIC AND LIBERTY
(KM 566)

Date: A.D. 1917

Obverse: Portrait head left with phrygian or liberty cap and laurel (the Republic and Liberty)

Reverse: Text - REPUBLICA PORTUGUESA 4 CENTAVOS 1917

Engraver Obv: Alves de Rego
Engraver Rev: Francisco dos Santos

This coin was minted for Portugal, a country with a rich history that rests near the tip of the the Iberian Peninsula. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east.

The coin was minted during an especially turbulent year during the already unstable short lived Portuguese First Republic. The Republic Lasted for 16 years following the fall of the monarchy in 1910, and before the coup d'état of 1926, the '28th of May Revolution' and the formation of the Estado Novo or 'new state' under the long dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar.

Bernardino Machado was in the second year of his first term as president of Portugal at the time of this coins minting. Machado, a teacher, mathematician, and diplomat, was elected President first in 1915. He was deposed by a military coup in December of 1917 and lived in exile for a brief time. On his return he served in a variety of offices and again became president on the resignation of President Teixeira Gomes.

Machado would again be deposed a year later by the coup d'état of 1926, the '28th of May Revolution'. He lived in France until the occupation of that country in 1940 forced him to seek safety in Portugal. He was allowed to return but in isolation until his death at Porto on April 29, 1944, he was 93 years old. Machado served as Minister of Justice, twice the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was twice the Prime Minister, and he was twice the President of Portugal, the 4th and 8th (and last of the First Republic).