Portuguese Coin Commemorating 400 Years of Discovery Of India

Here is a coin that I bought recently.
Its a 1898 Portuguese 500 Reis coin commemorating 400 years of discovery of India.

I want to know its catalog number and worth.

 

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PORTUGAL 500 REIS 1898 km 538

The coin is listed here

http://www.geocities.com/giladzuckerman/mercuguinness.html#PORTUGAL

It was bought many years ago. The price was about 13 $.

 

nice pics kidromeo, what did the coin cost?

 

For what grade have you bought it for. The pics I posted are seller pics and I don't have this coin in my hands right now but from the pics it seems a mid AU coin.

 

I bought it from an Ebay auction for $ 35. It might seem a great rip off but when I don't know the value of a coin I bid for what I'm willing to pay for it.
Anyone who knows the current value of this coin please let me know so that I can know the extent to which I got ripped off. lol
P.S. And also its km number.

 

I just found out that the 1898 Portuguese 200 Reis coin commemorating the same occassion is worth $ 13 in AU so hopefully my 500 Reis is worth a bit more than that.

 

Lovely coin :thumb: :thumb:

 

KM# 538 500 REIS 400th Anniversary of the Discovery of India 12.5000 g., 0.9170 Silver .3684 oz
mintage: 300,000 / F - 8.50 VF - 10.00 XF - 20.00

since my catalog is a few years out of date I assume you could add a few bucks maybe...silver price as well.

 

Thanks Dru :smile

 

no problem, and as always, in the end, a coin is worth what someone has decided they will pay for it.

 

Beautiful piece of propaganda you've got there. "Discovery" of india? Even then (1497) everyone knew India was already there. Hell, Portuguese spies had been up and down the coast of east Africa and had hitched rides to India on Arab ships long before.

When Columbus went off on his 1492 voyage, nobody knew America was there, but India?
Jeez!

 

You may be right about the fact that its more of a propaganda coin than actual commemoration of India's discovery. But the Portuguese always acknowledged the landing of Portuguese explorer Vasco Da Gama in May 20th 1498 at Calicut as India's discovery.

 

So will Britain issue a coin commemorating Sebastian Cabot's "discovery" of Russia? I doubt it. Old BS is still BS.

 

Probably Vasco Da Gama's successful establishment of first Portuguese trading post in Western India had something to do with it. He was also given the honorary title of 'Admiral of Indian Seas'.
The way I see it; Portugal just wanted to take the historical fame of being the first Western country to discover India; although India was known to many western countries at that point of time but nobody knew its sea route.

 

Bartholemew Diaz had come back from the bottom of Africa a decade before, Portuguese spies had taken the route from Mombassa (kenya) to Calcutt several times before prior to that, so de Gama knew the route beforehand.

 

Manuel I, I guess is the best person to answer that.:whistle:lol

 

nice coin i bought a 1000 reis in 64 for about 100 a year or so ago but that was a steal.

 

In fact there WERE people who knew America was there...

Coins are propaganda...almost all, if not all coins serve that purpose. That is nothing new and this coin is not unique in that. It is one of the main purposes of money behind (just barely) being a system of exchange, to put forth a message from those who minted it. Its a bit senseless to point out that its propaganda (old or new) . To point out a message on a coin is propaganda is like pointing out that everybody dies....its a given

 

No. Not a single person in the entire world knew there were one or more continents were blocking the westward sea route from Europe to East Asia.

Not. a. ONE.

 

So what. Vasco da Gama was the first one from Europe to "do" the entire route, and that is what the coin commemorates. By the way, 100 years later the commems were less verbose and yet a little more specific: One refers to the "Primeira Viagem Lisboa Calecut" (First Voyage Lisbon-Calecut), others show Natal and Moçambique, and the fourth one features a map of India, or rather of the Goa/Calecut area ...

Christian