1 Moeda = 4.800 Reis

The Banco de Lisboa was Portugal's first joint-stock bank, established in 1821 with note-issuing privileges that predated any central banking framework in the country. By 1837 it was operating under mounting political pressure — the Liberal Wars had only recently concluded, and the Portuguese financial system was in serious disorder. This note's denomination, expressed in the transitional moeda/reis equivalence, reflects exactly that instability: the moeda was an accounting unit, not a circulating coin, and quoting it alongside reis was a hedge against a public that didn't fully trust either.

The Banco de Lisboa lost its monopoly on note issue in 1846 when it was merged with the Companhia Confiança Nacional to form the Banco de Portugal. Survivors from the 1837 series are correspondingly rare.