1 Centavo Fronteira

Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Fronteira was one of dozens of Portuguese charitable brotherhoods that issued small-denomination cédulas during the acute coinage shortage of the early twentieth century. These local necessity notes filled a gap that the Banco de Portugal had no interest in filling — denominations this small were simply not worth printing at a national level. Fronteira is a minor municipality in the Alentejo interior, which kept circulation of these notes tightly local and redemption uncertain.

The single manuscript signature as the only security feature is telling: authentication was entirely personal, not institutional.