1000 Escudo Portuguese Republic (1975 - ) Silver

1996, Portugal. Silver 1000 Escudos “Ferdinand II & Gloria Frigate” Coin.

Mint Year: 1996 Reference: KM-688. Condition: UNCirculated! Denomination: 1000 Escudos  - Restoration of the Frigate Ferdinand II and Gloria. Material: Silver (.500) Diameter: 40mm Weight: 28gm 

Dom Fernando II e Glória is a wooden-hulled, 50-gun frigate of the Portuguese Navy. She was launched in 1843 and made her maiden voyage in 1845. Built at the shipyard of Daman in Portuguese India, it was Portugal’s last sailing warship to be built and also the last ship that undertook the Carreira da Índia (India Run), a regular military line that connected Portugal to its colonies in India since the beginning of the 16th century. The ship remained in active service until 1878, when she made her last sea voyage, having travelled more than one hundred thousand miles, the equivalent of five circumnavigations of the world. After long service it was almost destroyed by a fire in 1963 with the burned wooden-hull remaining beached at the mud-flats of the river Tagus for the next 29 years. Finally in 1990 the Portuguese Navy decided to restore her to her appearance in the 1850s. During the World Exhibition of 1998 the ship remained in Lisbon as a museum ship on the dependency of the Navy Museum, being classified as an Auxiliary Navy Unit (UAM 203). Since 2008, the ship lies on the southern margin of the Tagus river in Cacilhas, Almada.

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic,  is a country located mostly on the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost sovereign state of mainland Europe, being bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The official and national language is Portuguese.