Currency of Cape Verde 500 Escudos banknote 1989 Amilcar Cabral
Bank of Cape Verde - Banco de Cabo Verde
Occupying approximately two thirds of the note and leaning to the right, there’s the effigy of Amilcar Cabral, the founder of Cape Verdean nationality. This effigy is flanked to the left and right by a drawing of "Pano d’obra Bicho Antigo," made in Tarrafal, Santiago Island.
In the upper left corner, there’s the stylization of an ear of corn, one of the elements of the Cape Verde escudo, which coincides with the same element – by transparency – on the back of the note. Also in the left third part, there’s the watermark with the effigy of Amilcar Cabral.
Also in the upper left corner and immediately after the ear of corn, there’s the series number, consisting of figures which are differentiated and aligned horizontally.
Depicted on the back of this note are the maritime shipyards of São Vicente, with the Porto Grande Bay and the Island of the Birds - Ilhéu dos Pássaros in the background. These were probably the state-owned CABMAR shipyards which, under agreements with the World Bank, were privatized towards the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century.
In the same third, beyond the watermark with the effigy of Amilcar Cabral and above the silver band, there’s the text “A Lei Pune o Contrafactor”.
Watermark: Amilcar Cabral.
Dimensions: 136 x 67 mm.
Predominant Color: Blue.
Cape Verde Banknotes - Cape Verde Paper Money
20.01.1989 "Amilcar Cabral" Issue
It is not known when the second series of notes was introduced, but it was almost certainly during 1989. The date on the notes is once again the anniversary of the death of Amilcar Cabral and National Heroes Day—20 January 1989. There are five denominations in this series—100, 200, 500, 1000 and 2500 escudos—and while each note in the series shares a common design, there are distinct elements for each denomination.
The front of each note is dominated by a portrait of the mature Amilcar Cabral, but each note is of differing sizes, colours and incorporates different patterns. Common to each note are the watermark of Amilcar Cabral (a copy of the illustration on the front of the notes), the clear micro-printed security thread (with the micro-printing reading ‘BCV’ for Banco de Cabo Verde), the national emblem (on the back of the notes), a perfect registration device of a cob of corn, micro-printing of ‘BANCODECABOVERDE’, and fluorescent features. The fluorescent features on the front of the notes are the right-hand serial number, which fluoresces in gold, the left-hand serial number, which fluoresces in green, and the security thread that fluoresces in blue-green.
To the immediate left of the portrait of Amilcar Cabral on each note is a pattern based on old Pano d’obra (traditional strip-woven cloths) made in Tarrafal, on the island of Santiago. Each denomination has a different pattern based on a cloth constructed by classically designed narrow-strip-weave textiles. A square of the distinctive pattern is also used as a perfect registration device for each denomination, appearing beneath the signature of the governor of the bank. The cloth pattern on each note also contains a latent image, consisting of ‘BCV’ and the denomination of the note.
On the back of the notes, viewed in portrait format, is a five-pointed star wrapped in a semi-circular scroll holding Banco de Cabo Verde and the denomination written above and below the insignia. Various inks on the back of each note also fluoresce. The notes are signed by General Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires, the Minister of Finance, and Amaro Alexandre da Luz, the Governor.
The notes of this series were printed by Thomas De La Rue and Company.
Ilhéu dos Pássaros is an uninhabited islet near the north coast of São Vicente Island, Cape Verde. It lies about 1.3 km (0.8 mi) west of the headland Ponta João Ribeiro, and 3.5 km (2.2 mi) northwest of Mindelo city centre. It lies between the Porto Grande Bay and the Canal de São Vicente, the channel of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the islands of São Vicente and Santo Antão. There is a lighthouse on the middle of the island facing the western part not far from the summit.
The islet was once connected with a rim that formed the outer caldera of Mindelo, thousands of years ago during the Ice Age, the area was nothing but land that used to be the "Northwestern Island", as the sea level rose, the islands split into São Vicente, Santo Antão and Santa Luzia and reduced to being a larger peninsula and split from the island to form its own islet. On an 1888 map collection book by Imray, it was displayed as Bird Island.
In recent years, the islet now forms a formal subdivision of the city of Mindelo, it is the smallest area and is the only uninhabited subdivision in the city.
Panoramic views of the nearby island, Monte Verde, Monte Cara and nearby Lazareto are offered.
Depictions
Along with Porto Grande Bay and the Port of Mindelo (or Porto Grande), Ilhéu dos Pássaros was featured on a Cape Verdean $500 escudo bill shown on the back issued between 1989 and 2000, Amílcar Cabral was shown in the front until 1992, the note was partly modified when a new government was established in 1992 and featured Baltasar Lopes da Silva on the front.
Porto Grande Bay
Porto Grande Bay, also as Mindelo Bay (Portuguese: Baía do Porto Grande) is a bay on the north coast of the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde. The main city of São Vicente, Mindelo, is situated at the bay. The Porto Grande Bay is a deep natural harbour, formed by an underwater volcanic crater of about 4 kilometer diameter, the area is approximately 20 km² and the depth ranges from 15 to 30 m. Along with Praia Harbor in area, it is the largest port and harbour in Cape Verde but second in activity for Porto Grande. It stretches between the headlands Ponta João Ribeiro in the northeast and Morro Branco in the west. To the northwest it opens towards the Canal de São Vicente, the channel between the islands São Vicente and Santo Antão. The small rocky island Ilhéu dos Pássaros lies north of the bay. The port's location being inside the Atlantic Ocean sits at or within the major sea-lanes linking Europe to South America, the other linking North America to southern Africa or Australia, much of its ships bypasses the archipelago today.
About the port
The port is owned and operated by ENAPOR and is co-owned by the Canarian company Armas.
It offers ferry services to the nearby island of Santo Antão with Porto Novo and serves twice a day and has a boat carrying 450 passengers and also carries auto traffic, its ferry route crosses the channel and is accessed in 50 minutes each way. It also has ferry routes to Fogo and Brava twice a week and Santiago and São Nicolau once a week. All ferry services to Sal are done via São Nicolau, to Maio via Santiago and to Boa Vista via Sal and São Nicolau.
The shipyard has been used as a naval station especially for the Capeverdean Navy (Cabnave), it is used as a repair base even for foreign naval ships. It is measured 110 x 18 meters and has 145 meters of quay. Also in that location it also has its own lighthouse used for naval and probably non-naval ships. Its focal height is 8 meters and its range is around 14-15 km (8 nmi).
The bay is considered one of the seven wonders of Cape Verde, on November 12, 2013, it became the fifth most beautiful bay in the world.
History
During the Last Ice Age, it was once a small caldeira that was surrounded by a rim in the north and west and belonged to the larger "Northwestern Island" as the sea levels were around 150 m lower, when the sea level was about 25 m lower, the caldeira area was flooded and formed Porto Grande Bay, the northern peninsula was once hook shaped, before the sea levels reached the current level, Ilhéu dos Passos was formed after it separated from the island.
Along with the island, the bay was first explored and charted on January 22, 1462, Saint Vincent's Day. In 1624, a Dutch fleet which had 3,300 sailors, commanded by admiral Jacob Willekens passed through the bay before he conquered Bahia in Brazil. The harbour was mentioned in the 1747 French/Dutch map by Jacques Nicolas Bellin.
Mindelo was founded in 1795 along with its tiny port, around the mid 19th century, a coal deposit was established to supply ships on Atlantic routes, the port was expanded by the British and also used Cape Verde as a storage depot for imported coal bound for the Americas. In 1875, Cory Brothers, a coal shipping company opened next to the bay, it increased usage. Ships were stopped in Mindelo for refueling, first 669 ships were refueled each year in 1879, later 1,927 ships stopped in Porto Grande in 1889 and was the highest ever reached. Also in 1874, telegraph cables were established in two parts, one southwest of Ilhéu dos Pássaros and the other northeast and passed halfway between Ribeira Julião Point and the islet, as telegraphs went out of use, they are now called communications line are now even used for Internet signals and connected with Pernambuco, Brazil via Madeira, West and Southern Africa and the United States in 1884 and Cameroon via Bathurst (now Banjul) in 1885. As coal were being replaced by petroleum fuel, the number of ship visits dropped, one part, the opening of the Suez Canal in Egypt, shipping activity ceased in the 1930s, ship traffic did not fully resumed until around 1950, the last ship refueled with coal was in 1952, Mindelo's and the island's economy were devastaded for decades. The port was mentioned in a map and a nautical chart from 1884 that is now at the British Museum Library. In April 1922, aviators Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral boarded a hydroplane for the First aerial crossing of the South Atlantic which had Mindelo and the bay as its stop, it started from Lisbon and finished in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A monument today is erected on Avenida Marginal, the area where the hydroplane visited.[5] Porto Grande was a very small port and was within the city, the port expanded in 1962 and finished up to be nearly shaped like a letter F facing westward, its furthermost unnamed point also extended, it went west of Ponta João Ribeiro and the 25th meridian west. Until independence in 1975, the port was a Portuguese naval base. As the British coal industry went into decline in the 1980s, this source of income dried up, and Britain had to abandon its Cape Verdean interests — which ended up being the final strike to the highly dependent local and island economy.
Until 1962, it had passenger ferry service with the ports of Ponta do Sol and rarely Ribeira Grande in the island of Santo Antão, after Carvoeiros' port was completed, the services changed to that port in which the town became Porto Novo.
In 2006, ships that participated in a NATO operation known as Operation Jaguar landed in the bay to do their maneuvers for a few days, 7,000 troops took part.
Several American ships made their recent visits in Mindelo, on April 26, 2007, the USS Mahan (DDG-72) visited the port of Mindelo, later on November 16, the USS Annapolis (SSN-760) visited and the US Coast Guard ship, the Dallas (WHEC-716) June 7, 2008.
Expansions
The port has undergone a few series of expansions. The first was in 1962, another expansion took place in 1997 as part of the Porto Grande Modernization Project, the port added 1,750 m of quays. The expansion has enlarged the port's area to 45,000 m² and it features a shipping station and a passenger terminal. The most recent expansion occurred in the northern part in 2014 and is currently expanding, the location of expansion is in the northeast and west of the Avenida Marginal, the northern part is slightly more distant.
Depictions
Porto Grande Bay, the Port of Mindelo and Ilhéu dos Passaros issued between 1989 and 1992 and from 1992 to 2000
Along with Ilhéu dos Passaros, Porto Grande Bay and the Port of Mindelo (or Porto Grande) were featured on a Cape Verdean $500 escudo bill shown on the back issued between 1989 and 2000, Amílcar Cabral was shown in the front until 1992, the note was partly modified when a new government was established in 1992 and featured Baltasar Lopes da Silva on the front.
São Vicente
São Vicente (Portuguese for "Saint Vincent"), also Son Visent or Son Sent in Cape Verdean Creole, is one of the Barlavento islands of Cape Verde off the west African coast. It is located between the islands of Santo Antão and Santa Luzia, with the Canal de São Vicente separating it from Santo Antão.
Geography
The island is roughly rectangular in shape with a surface area of ca. 227 square kilometres (88 square miles). From east to west it measures 24 kilometres (15 miles) and from north to south no more than 16 kilometres (9.9 miles). The terrain includes mountains in the west, the southwest, the south, the east-central and the north. The area is flat in the north-central and central parts, the eastern part south of Calhau, and the northern part in the Baía das Gatas area. The urban area of Mindelo is in the northern part.
The island, of volcanic origin, is fairly flat. Its highest point is Monte Verde (green mountain), located in the northeast-central part with an altitude of 725 metres (2,379 feet). Although very eroded, some craters still remain, in particular near the bay of Mindelo. Other mountains include Monte Cara and Topona.
A small islet, Ilheu dos Passaros, is less than one nautical mile off the coast north of Porto Grande Bay off Mindelo, the island being one of five that have surrounding islets.
Until the mid-20th century, trees were scarce in the island, and most of the island remains deforested. Most of the wide valleys and smaller dales have become forested, particularly in the middle of the island.
Climate
São Vicente enjoys a very rare mild and dry tropical climate (Köppen–Geiger classification As), much like Santa Cruz de Tenerife or Las Palmas on the Canary Islands, but somewhat warmer during winter months. The average annual temperature in Mindelo is 23.2 °C (73.8 °F) which is two degrees more than in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The island is very arid, with only 80 to 130 mm (3.15–5.12 inches) of annual rainfall, somewhat higher only near the tops of the few mountains. These rare climate conditions are due to its position far off the west African coast and because Cape Verde is in the middle of the cold Canary Current. The ocean water temperature every year is between 22 °C (72 °F) and 25 °C (77 °F). There are two seasons: December through July is mainly dry, cool and windy, while August through November is a wetter and warmer season.
History of São Vicente
During the last ice age there was a larger island, which has been called the "Northwestern Island", including what is now São Vicente, Santo Antão, Santa Luzia and two other islets, with an area of about 1,500 km2 (579 sq mi). About 2,000 years ago, flooding broke up this island into the three larger and several smaller islands of today.
São Vicente was discovered on Saint Vincent's Day (January 22), 1462. The island was granted to the Dukes of Viseu. It remained unpopulated, and eventually passed to Manuel I of Portugal.
Due to its lack of water, the island was initially used only as a cattle pasture by some proprietors of the neighboring island of Santo Antão. Pirates sometimes came to the natural harbour; fortifications were built in 1734 to protect British, French and Dutch pirates. The island remained practically uninhabited until 1795, when the area of Porto Grande Bay was settled. In the mid-19th century the original name of the island's first settlement was Nossa Senhora da Luz, the first church on the island; this is the name of a parish today. In 1819 the village was to be renamed to Leopoldinha after empress Maria Leopoldina of Austria, wife of Peter IV of Portugal, it was not renamed until 1838 when the name Mindelo was adopted, after a Portuguese military expedition that occurred in the beaches of Mindelo, Portugal during the Portuguese Civil War or the Wars of Liberation. The name "Mindelo de São Vicente" is sometimes used today by outsiders. The British, who were allied with Portugal, expanded most of the island's economy after Brazil declared independence in September 1822. It was only in 1838, when a coal deposit was established in Porto Grande to supply ships on Atlantic routes, that the population started to grow rapidly. It was the first island in Cape Verde to abolish slavery, São Nicolau and Santo Antão abolished it a year later. Telegraph lines were established in 1874 by the Western Telegraph Company, via Madeira, to connect with Recife, the capital of Pernambuco in Brazil. In 1886 the network was expanded to connect to other places, especially the southern and eastern parts of the British Empire. From the start of the 20th century the introduction of diesel ships made the coaling unnecessary; ships began to stop instead at Dakar and the Canary Islands, and the island economy declined; the island was particularly hard hit after the Great Depression until the late 1940s. This caused a rise of the independence movement; the economy remained in bad shape until Cape Verde became independent. The historic center of Mindelo has buildings from that date preserved into the present day. The Liceu Nacional Infante D. Henrique (now known as Escola de Jorge Barbosa), built in 1921, is out of colonial architecture, it had huge importance on the development of the rising nationalism of Cape Verde.
Due to the lack of rain and consequent lack of natural resources, the economy of São Vicente is based mainly on commerce and services.
Economy
The economy of the island was always based almost exclusively on commerce and services. Due to lack of rain, agriculture is at a subsistence level. Fishing has some relevance, but conditions prevent it from being more important, not only for the catch—lobster—but also for the associated industries: conserves, drying and salting of fish, and naval construction.
Porto Grande is the main port of Cape Verde, through which passes much of the country's imports. It has a terminal of containers, silos, and refrigeration units that make handling load overflow possible. There is also a modern seawater desalination plant, which provides water for public consumption and for naval shipyards.
In the industrial sector, the island presents an abundance of manpower, even though unskilled, resulting from the exodus of inhabitants of other islands to São Vicente. About 27% of the employed population is unskilled. Highly qualified employees—company executives, public administrators, and managers and directors—make up less than 2% of employees. It is distinguished, however, by a bigger participation of women in decision-making positions than the national average.
According to the 2010 census, the island of São Vicente has the largest unemployment rate of the country—14,8%—while the national average is 11%. Unemployment affects women more than men. The industrial park of the island—the Industrial Zone of the Lazareto—concentrates diverse types of manufacturing, essentially due to foreign investment, in the activities of footwear, confections, and fish processing.
The National Center of Workmanship of Mindelo supports local craftsmen in the production and commercialization of ceramic parts, articles made of coconut rinds, and necklaces of shells and rocks.
Many sports are practised in São Vicente, and many have spread to the remaining islands. The island is suitable for windsurfing; the beach of São Pedro is considered one of the best for windsurfing, as shown by the many world-class champions of the sport. Cycling, walking trails and horseback riding are ways to explore the island. São Vicente has an excellent 18-hole golf course. For these reasons, tourism has excellent growth potential on São Vicente and in the rest of the Cape Verde archipelago. Travel between the diverse localities of the island is provided by a system of public transportation operated by five private companies: Transcor.SA, Morabeza Transport, Transport Joy, Friendship, Sotral and Automindelo. However, especially for places farthest from the city of the Mindelo, namely Baía das Gatas, Calhau, and São Pedro, van and bus leasing are the usual forms of transportation.
São Vicente has churches, a post office, a few banks, shops (not as many as Praia), a hospital named Baptista de Sousa and squares (praças).