Prova issues from the Casa da Moeda were struck as official test or pattern pieces for internal approval, not for public circulation. The 1968 date places this squarely in the late Salazar period — António de Oliveira Salazar suffered a debilitating stroke in September of that year and was quietly removed from power, replaced by Marcello Caetano. Whether any coinage decisions were deferred or altered during that political transition is unrecorded, but the timing is notable.
KM#Pr40 is sparsely documented in most references, with surviving examples presumed to number in the dozens at most.
Prova issues from the Casa da Moeda were struck as official test or pattern pieces for internal approval, not for public circulation. The 1968 date places this squarely in the late Salazar period — António de Oliveira Salazar suffered a debilitating stroke in September of that year and was quietly removed from power, replaced by Marcello Caetano. Whether any coinage decisions were deferred or altered during that political transition is unrecorded, but the timing is notable.
KM#Pr40 is sparsely documented in most references, with surviving examples presumed to number in the dozens at most.