1 Libra

Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied a peculiar institutional position — chartered in Lisbon but functioning as the effective central bank across Portuguese overseas territories, issuing currency in denominations calibrated to local commercial practice rather than metropolitan standards. The libra unit here reflects the East African trading environment of Moçambique, where British sterling influence on trade pricing made libra-denominated notes a practical necessity rather than an ideological choice.

Bradbury Wilkinson produced this at their New Malden works, and their intaglio printing for colonial issuers of this period is generally well-executed — the BNU series of 1909 being no exception technically, though the notes saw hard use in port and transit commerce.