Portugal isn't issuing a commemorative Ronaldo coin

The online claims allege that 25,000 €7 coins honouring the Portuguese football star would enter circulation, with a purchase price of €7.50.

Transcript

00:00Portugal isn't issuing a commemorative Ronaldo coin.

00:08The Portuguese central bank has refuted claims circulating online and in various media outlets

00:13that it's releasing a coin in honor of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Banco de Portugal said in a press

00:18release that it hasn't issued, nor is it planning to issue, any collector or commemorative coins

00:23dedicated to the Portuguese football star. It added that the annual program for producing

00:28coins and medals is approved solely by the Portuguese Mint and Official Printing Office,

00:33which has also publicly denied issuing a Ronaldo coin. The authorities were forced to speak out

00:37after online news reports and social media posts making the claims gained traction.

00:42The online claims alleged that 25,000 7 euro coins would enter circulation,

00:47with a purchase price of 7.50 euros. Some added that the coin could eventually fetch a price of

00:52144,000 euros due to its rarity, gold content and Ronaldo's fame. Many of the posts and articles

00:59share a picture of what the supposed coin would look like, but it's AI generated. It generally

01:04lacks the finer details that you'd expect to see on a coin, and most of the characters lining its

01:09edges are made up, which is a common feature of AI images. For good measure, we can check the

01:14website of both Portugal's central bank and the Mint to see which collector and commemorative

01:18coins have been issued over the past year. You can see coins honoring Portugal's Olympic team,

01:23the Skating Federation and its participation in the Euro 2024 championship, but there's nothing

01:29on Ronaldo. False claims about a CR7 coin seemingly go back at least as far as September,

01:35after he scored his 900th career goal during a Nations League match against Croatia. Fact

01:40checkers debunked those claims at the time. For more investigations and fact checks, head to Euronews.com