Portugal 2 Pcs Set—Stunning!—Last 2 100 Escudos b4 Euro—P178 P179—XF Extra Fine

The two final designs of Portugal's iconic 100 Escudos series before Portugal moved to the Euro — together in one set. Both notes feature giants of Portuguese literature, both are beautifully engraved, and both were demonetized as the Escudo gave way to the Euro. This is the complete literary farewell of a currency that lasted 90 years.

Set includes one of each note, any variety of either:

• P-178 (8th print, 1980–85) — Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage, the obscene poet who survived the Inquisition
• P-179 (9th print, 1986–88) — Fernando Pessoa, the shape-shifting genius who invented four poets inside himself

P-178 — Bocage (8th Print, 1980–1985)

• Front color: Dark blue on multicolor underprint
• Front: Portrait of Manuel Maria Barbosa du Bocage (1765–1805); Portuguese Coat of Arms at upper left; Chapa 8
• Back color: Dark blue on multicolor underprint
• Back: Engraving of Rossio Square at the beginning of the 19th century
• Varieties: You may receive any variety (P-178a through P-178e, dated 1980–1985)
• Catalog numbers: P-178; Silva# 107–111; Numista N#202847
• Watermark: Manuel M. B. du Bocage
• Size: 150 × 73 mm
• Printer: Royal Joh. Enschedé, Haarlem, Netherlands
• Demonetized: 31 May 1990

P-179 — Fernando Pessoa (9th Print, 1986–1988)

• Front color: Dark blue on multicolor tan and cyan underprint
• Front: Drawing of Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935); Portuguese Coat of Arms at upper left; Ch. 9
• Back color: Dark blue and red on multicolor tan and cyan underprint
• Back: A red rose and a tangle of ribbons bearing the names of Pessoa's heteronyms: Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis, Bernardo Soares, Chevalier de Pas
• Varieties: You may receive any variety (P-179a through P-179f, dated 1986–1988)
• Catalog numbers: P-179; Silva# 112–117; Numista N#202789
• Watermark: Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa
• Size: 149 × 75 mm
• Printer: De La Rue (TDLR), London, United Kingdom
• Demonetized: Yes (with the Escudo, 2002)

Common Details

• Composition: Paper
• Condition: XF (Extra Fine)
• Issuing entity: Bank of Portugal (Banco de Portugal)
• Currency: Portuguese Escudo (1911–2001)

Two Poets, One Currency's Last Chapter

The 8th and 9th prints of the 100 Escudos are the only two notes in the series to feature literary figures — and what figures they are. Bocage (1765–1805) was the enfant terrible of Portuguese letters: a sonneteer of genius who was imprisoned by the Inquisition for his irreverent, often obscene verse and his Freemason sympathies. Pessoa (1888–1935) was the opposite in temperament — reclusive, cerebral, and so prolific in his invented identities that he left behind a trunk of 25,000 manuscript pages at his death. Together they bookend the Escudo's final decade: a defrocked provocateur and a quiet revolutionary, united on paper currency just before Portugal joined the EU and the old money began its countdown to extinction.

The Defrocked Poet Who Shocked a Nation

Bocage was born in Setúbal in 1765 and became the most celebrated — and most notorious — lyric poet of 18th-century Portugal. A master of the sonnet, he combined classical elegance with raw, often obscene wit that landed him in serious trouble with the Inquisition. He was imprisoned in 1797 for his irreverent verses and his association with Freemasonry and revolutionary ideas flowing in from France. After recanting, he was released — a broken but still brilliant figure who died in 1805 at just 40 years old. His erotic and satirical poems circulated in manuscript for generations after his death, making him a kind of underground literary legend. Today he is remembered as the Portuguese Rimbaud — a genius who burned too bright and too fast.

Rossio: The Living Room of Lisbon

Rossio Square (officially Praça Dom Pedro IV) has been the beating heart of Lisbon for over 700 years. The engraving on the reverse captures it at the turn of the 19th century — before the neoclassical National Theatre (built 1842) dominated its northern end, and before the iconic wave-pattern cobblestones were laid. In Bocage's own lifetime, this was the square where news spread, poets argued, and the city's pulse was felt. The pairing of poet and square on this note is no accident — both are quintessentially, irreducibly Lisboeta.

The Man Who Was Many Men

Fernando Pessoa was born in Lisbon in 1888 and spent most of his life in near-obscurity, working as a commercial translator by day and writing some of the most radical poetry of the 20th century by night. What made him singular — and what makes this note singular — is his invention of heteronyms: not pen names, but fully realized alternative identities, each with their own biography, philosophy, and poetic style. Alberto Caeiro was a pastoral naif who denied metaphysics. Ricardo Reis was a classicist and monarchist. Álvaro de Campos was a Whitmanesque modernist engineer who wrote in ecstatic free verse. Bernardo Soares kept a melancholy prose diary, The Book of Disquiet, that was only published after Pessoa's death. Pessoa himself died in 1935 at age 47, leaving behind a trunk containing over 25,000 manuscript pages — most of it unpublished. Today he is considered one of the greatest writers in the Portuguese language and a towering figure of world literature.

A Rose for Every Self

The reverse design is unlike anything else in world banknote art. Rather than a building or a landscape, the Bank of Portugal chose to represent Pessoa's multiplicity of selves — a rose at the center, ribbons unfurling with the names of his heteronyms. It is a philosophical statement pressed into paper currency: identity is not singular, the self is a fiction, and a nation can honor a man precisely for his refusal to be just one person. For a collector, this note is not just money — it is a meditation on authorship and identity rendered in ink and cotton fiber.

Own both notes and hold the complete literary epilogue of the Portuguese Escudo — two poets, two masterpieces of banknote engraving, one unforgettable set.