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1 Centavo Portalegre
| Issuer | Câmara Municipal de Portalegre |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 101 × 64 mm |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | CAMARA MUNICIPAL DE PORTALEGRE Vale 1 centavo Valida até 31 de Dezembro de 1921 (Translation: Portalegre City Council Worth 1 centavo Valid until 31 December 1921) |
| Reverse description | Printed in green, the reverse carries a central vignette of the Portalegre municipal chamber building rendered in detailed line work, showing its neoclassical façade with arched windows and entrance steps. Signature lines for the Presidente and the Comissão Executiva are printed above the vignette, with handwritten ink signatures applied to each line. The series designation appears vertically along the right margin. |
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| Comments |
Portuguese municipal chambers gained emergency note-issuing authority during the severe coin shortage that gripped the country in the late 1910s and early 1920s. Portalegre, a small administrative center in the Alto Alentejo, was among dozens of municipalities that responded by printing their own low-denomination cédulas — essentially promises to pay backed by little more than local civic authority. The legal framework was improvised and short-lived; the Banco de Portugal moved to suppress municipal issues as soon as central supply stabilized.
One centavo denominations were the most purely functional of the cédulas, worth almost nothing individually but necessary to make change. Few were kept as keepsakes.