Portuguese Coins - 480th Anniversary of Solor and Timor

Portuguese commemorative coins mark several important dates in Portuguese history.

Characteristics

Name	200 escudos
Year	1995
Subject	480th Anniversary of Solor and Timor
Period	Portuguese Republic (1986 - 2001)
Currency type	Commemorative coin
Composition	Copper-Nickel
Board type	Round

_{480th Anniversary of Solor and Timor}

History

Solor is a volcanic island in the Small Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It gives its name to an archipelago, located east of the island of Flores, which also consists of the islands of Adonara and Lomblen. About 40 km long and 6 km wide, it has five volcanoes. Portuguese forces settled on the island in 1520, erecting a fortification in the coastal village of Lamakera, at the eastern end of the island, to support navigation between the Moluccas and Malacca.

Timor is an island in Insulindia, politically divided into two halves: East Timor, which is a province of Indonesia, and East Timor, once a Portuguese colony, later occupied and annexed by Indonesia in November 1975, and which became in 2002. In Timor-Leste the Portuguese language is spoken by about 5% of the population. Tetum predominates and is a co-official language, together with Portuguese.

According to anthropological sources, the island was already inhabited by a small group of hunters and farmers around 12000 B.C. The abundance of sandalwood, honey and beeswax on the island, attracted the attention of traders from China.

The inhabitants of Timor paid tribute to the kingdom of Java. The name Timor comes from the name given by the Malays to the island where the country is located, Timur, which means East. The formation of local commerce led to marriages with local royal families, contributing to ethnic-cultural diversity.

The first known European document that speaks of the island is a letter from Rui Brito Patalin to Manuel I, dated 6 January 1514, in which ships that had left for Timor are mentioned. Initially attracted by natural resources, the Portuguese brought missionaries and the Catholic religion with them. With the arrival of the first governor, coming from Portugal in 1702, the colonial organization of the territory began, creating Portuguese Timor.

Currency value in USD

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Old Portuguese Coins
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