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1 Centavo Azemeis
| Issuer | Câmara Municipal de Oliveira de Azeméis |
|---|---|
| Year | |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Brown and violet letterpress note with a central circular vignette of Mercury in motion, holding a caduceus, set against radiating sunburst lines and flanked by foliate scrollwork. The denomination numeral "1" appears in dark circular cartouches at upper center, lower left, and lower right. The issuer's name is displayed in two registers across the upper portion of the note within a decorative guilloche border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Gray underprint with a large arched guilloche frame enclosing a central circle bearing the denomination numeral "1" above the text "CENTAVO". The issuer's name curves along the upper arch. A handwritten authorization signature in blue ink and a red serial number with asterisk are applied over the printed design. |
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| Comments |
Oliveira de Azeméis is a small industrial town in the Aveiro district of northwestern Portugal, and this cédula — a municipal emergency note — was issued by its câmara municipal during the acute small-change shortage that plagued Portugal in the years surrounding the First World War. The central government's inability to keep low-denomination coinage in circulation forced hundreds of municipalities, charitable organizations, and commercial houses to issue their own fractional paper, most of it locally printed and of wildly varying quality.
At 1 centavo, this is about as low as municipal fiduciary issues go. The MA#1628 reference places it within the Numismática Afonso catalog of Portuguese notgeld-type emissions, a body of material still underresearched relative to its German counterparts.