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1 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, Copper exchange note

Issuer Imperio do Brasil
Year 1833
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Currency Real (1799-1942)
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Reverse description Plain paper reverse bearing handwritten manuscript entries applied in ink after issue: the province name 'Parahina' written vertically at the left margin, a handwritten serial number in the upper right, and two manuscript authorization signatures across the centre, consistent with contemporary practice for these provincial copper-exchange cédulas.
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Protection description A ladder-pattern filigree watermark (nicknamed 'escada', meaning ladder, due to its stepped rungs appearance) embedded in the paper substrate.
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Comments

Brazil's Thesouro Nacional began issuing copper exchange notes (notas de cobre) in 1833 as a direct response to a chronic shortage of small-denomination copper coinage in the northeastern provinces. The notes were explicitly redeemable in copper coin — not silver, not gold — a distinction that mattered considerably to the poor and working populations who actually handled them. Copper itself was depreciating, which made the exchange promise increasingly hollow as the decade wore on.

Among the earliest paper instruments issued under the Brazilian Empire, predating the establishment of the Banco do Brasil's second charter by several years. The watermark security was rudimentary by contemporary European standards, and counterfeiting of the copper note series was reported almost immediately after issue.

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