2 and 1 roll (25)

Issued year - 2011, September

FERNÃO MENDES PINTO - 500th Anniversary of the birth

All the coins depicted in the image were brought today, from the Portugal Bank treasury. Fernão Mendes Pinto left Lisbon in 1537 and embarked on an extraordinary voyage around the coast of Africa, India, Sumatra, Zion, Cambodia, China and Japan, a feat that personified the spirit of the portuguese explorers who set sail on adventures to expand the horizons of the world. His book "Peregrinação" (pilgrimage), published posthumously in 1614, is the story of this exceptional journey through the lands of the Orient, during which Fernão Mendes Pinto was a trader, a chronicler, a Jesuit, a pirate and an ambassador «thirteen times captured and seventeen sold», in a succession of prodigies, marvels and adventures that combined reality and fantasy, dazzling a sixteenth century Europe thirsty for tales and stories about far-flung peoples and places.
The inner part of the coin depicts a sailing ship floating on a sea formed by a series of wave-shaped references to Portugal, Lisbon, his book and some of the destinations of his travels, With the country designation “Portugal” centred beneath them. His name flanked by the dates “1511” and “2011” form a semicircle around the upper edge of the inner part.


At the moment, several coins are available to swap
Issuing volume: 500.000