5 Escudos

By 1973, the Portuguese colonial administration in Guinea was fighting a losing war against the PAIGC independence movement, which had already declared the territory's independence the previous year — a declaration recognized by dozens of states before Portugal itself acknowledged the end of its African empire. Coins were still being struck for a colony that existed increasingly on paper alone.

The PAIGC declared Amílcar Cabral's Guinea-Bissau independent in September 1973. Cabral himself had been assassinated in January of that year.