1 Centavo Figueira Da Foz

Figueira da Foz, a fishing and resort town on the Portuguese Atlantic coast, was one of dozens of municipalities where local commercial associations issued their own low-denomination cédulas during the currency shortages of the First World War and its aftermath. The Banco de Portugal's inability to keep small change in circulation drove merchants to organize these emergency substitutes collectively — the issuer here was a trade and industry association, not a bank, which made the notes legally dubious but practically essential.

The embossed seal was the primary authenticity device, applied by hand. Forgery of these hyper-local issues was rarely worth the effort given the tiny face values and restricted geographic acceptance.