Portugal: Vasco de Gama Tercentenary Commemoration

Form:

Circular. Cast.

By:

Date:

1898

Ref:

Laidlaw: 0196;

Variations:

Size	Metal	Mass	Value
105 mm	Bronze	649 gm	$320
50 mm	Bronze	60 gm	$190
102.4 mm	Yellow Bronze (reproduction)	659 gm	$180

Edge:

Plain. Thickness at rim of larger medal 10.6 mm. Thickness of smaller medal 6 mm.

Obverse:

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)”.

Reverse:

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)”.

Notes:

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.