Portugal 100 escudos 1990 - Pedro Nunes

The coin's story

This bimetallic 100 escudos coin, with an aluminium-bronze centre and a cupronickel ring, honours the mathematician and cosmographer Pedro Nunes, born in Alcácer do Sal in 1502 and died in Coimbra in 1578. Appointed royal cosmographer in 1529, then chief cosmographer in 1547, he held this post until his death. He was the first to approach navigation and cartography mathematically. In 1537, he described the loxodrome, the constant-bearing route that spirals towards the poles. In 1542, in De Crepusculis, he presented the nonius, a small graduated rule that allows fractions of a division to be read, Pierre Vernier would later derive from it the instrument that bears his name. Both sides are the work of José Cândido, and the type was struck from 1989 to 2001. Numista distinguishes two edge varieties: five groups of twelve reeds or six groups of eleven reeds.