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1/2 Libra
| Issuer | Companhia de Moçambique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1934 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | The Portuguese royal arms vignette occupies the upper centre, set within an elaborate guilloche underprint in red and yellow-green tones that fills the note face. The issuer's title COMPANHIA DE MOÇAMBIQUE arches across the top in a decorative cartouche, while the denomination MEIA LIBRA ESTERLINA is boldly lettered in the centre field. Place of issue, date, and two manuscript signatures appear in the lower portion, flanked by the fraction numeral 1/2 repeated at left and right. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in blue-green intaglio on a plain paper ground and is entirely typographic and ornamental in character. A central oval cartouche bearing the ornate fraction numeral 1/2 is surrounded by an intricate guilloche frame, with four large rosette medallions positioned at the corners. The denomination legend MEIA LIBRA ESTERLINA arches above and below the central cartouche, and the printer's imprint appears at the foot of the design. |
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| Comments |
The Companhia de Moçambique — a chartered company granted administrative control over the territories of Manica and Sofala in central Mozambique — had the unusual authority to issue its own currency, independent of the Banco Nacional Ultramarino notes circulating in the Portuguese colonial remainder. That quasi-sovereign status made it one of the last such concessionary companies still operating its own monetary system into the 1930s.
Bradbury Wilkinson engraved and printed the series in London, as they did for a significant portion of British colonial and concessionary paper. The company's charter was finally revoked in 1942, when Portugal resumed direct administration — ending the note-issuing authority along with it.