Portugal: Vasco de Gama Tercentenary Commemoration
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Form:
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Circular. Cast.
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By:
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? |
Date:
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1898 |
Ref:
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Laidlaw: 0196;
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Variations:
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Size | Metal | Mass | Value |
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105 mm | Bronze | 649 gm | $320 | 50 mm | Bronze | 60 gm | $190 | 102.4 mm | Yellow Bronze (reproduction) | 659 gm | $180 |
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Edge:
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Plain. Thickness at rim of larger medal 10.6 mm. Thickness of smaller medal 6 mm.
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Obverse:
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Within a laurel wreath of tied with ribbon, the bust in high relief of the Portuguese navigator Vasco de Gama, left. The legend, encircled on the outside by a knotted rope: “GLORIAM INCLYTO NAVIGATORI VASCO DA GAMA 1498-1898 (Glory to the celebrated navigator Vasco da Gama)”.
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Reverse:
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In high relief, a starboard-bow view of a 15th-century Portuguese carrack with swelling sails bearing the Cross of Portugal and bordered above by an arc of knotted rope. Below a banded globe surmounted by a cross and flanked on the left by the crowned shield of Portugal and on the right by another shield surrounded by sprays of laurel and oak. Legend within a decorated border: “DESCOBRIMENTO DO CAMINHO MARITIMO PARA A INDIA (Discoverer of the sea passage to India)”.
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Notes:
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Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route from Europe to India round the Cape of Good Hope. On 8 July 1497 he left Lisbon with a fleet of four ships and a crew of 170. He reached Calicut, India, on 20 May 1498. Travelling up the east coat of Africa he named the land they were passing on Christmas day, Natal.
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