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Portugal: Bartolomeu Dias, 500th Anniversary of Voyage Round the Cape of Good Hope

Portugal: Bartolomeu Dias, 500th Anniversary of Voyage Round the Cape of Good HopePortugal: Bartolomeu Dias, 500th Anniversary of Voyage Round the Cape of Good Hope
Form: Vircular
By: Cabral Antunes
Date: 1987
Ref:  Laidlaw: 1022;
Variations:
SizeMetalMassValue
89.0 mm Yellow Bronze263 gm$20

Edge: Plain. Thickness 4.0 mm to 8.7 mm.

Obverse: In high relief, bust of Dias, front, in cap. Legend above: "BARTOLOMEU DIAS". On right, across: "1487 /1987". Signed, across, lower left: "CABRAL ANTUNES".

Reverse: Map of Europe and Africa. Sea represented by horizontal hatching, the equatorial line thicker, marked: "EQUADOR". Portuguese caravel lower left. On a scroll across north africa: "JAZ AQUI, NA PEQUENA PRAIA EXTREMA / O CAPITÃO DO FIM. DOBRADO O ASSOMBRO, / O MAR É O MESMO: JÁ NINGUÉM O TEMA! / ATLAS, MOSTRA ALTO O MUNDO NO SEU HOMBRO / F.P." On a curve downwards to the left of Africa: "OCEANO ATLANTICO". Across to the left of South Africa: ".CABO.DA.BOA. / ESPERANCA".

Notes: Bartolomeu Dias led an expedition 1487-1488 in an attempt to discover a sea route to India. He was the first European known to have rounded the Cape of Good Hope which he named the Cape of Storms.

José Maria Cabral Antunes (1916–1986) was a Portuguese medallist. Presumably this medal was produced posthumously.

The text in the scroll is an epitaph to Dias by Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), a Portuguese poet. It translates into English:
"Here lies, on the small strand of the furthest reach,
The Captain of the End. With Awe now rounded,
The sea is the same: let no one fear it now!
Atlas shows the world high on his shoulder."