50 Centavos

São Tomé and Príncipe's colonial coinage of this period was issued under Portuguese authority through the Overseas Financial Participation mechanism, which standardized bronze fractional coins across multiple African territories simultaneously. The 1971 date falls in the final years before the Carnation Revolution of April 1974 ended Portuguese colonial rule — independence followed in 1975, making this among the last issues struck for the islands under Lisbon's administration.