Catalog
1 Pataca
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Currency | Pataca (1894-1959) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO TIMOR UMA PATACA $1 DECRETO Nº 17154 LISBOA, 8 DE MARÇO DE 1945 BANCO-NACIONAL-ULTRAMARINO COLONIAS, COMMERCIO, AGRICULTURA O Administrador O Presidente do Conselho Administrativo LITOGRAFIA NACIONAL-PORTUGAL |
| Reverse description | Printed in olive-brown and grey tones, the reverse centres on a large vignette of the Portuguese royal arms — the crowned shield with five escutcheons and seven castles, encircled by a laurel wreath and crossed anchors — set within a fine guilloche frame. Flanking the central vignette are two symmetrical oval panels, each inscribed $1 within intricate lathe-work rosettes. Chinese characters reading 大西洋海外滙理銀行 appear across the top, with the bank name in Portuguese below, and the denomination UMA PATACA TIMOR lettered in a bold cartouche at the foot. |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino's Macau branch relied on Lisbon-directed printing throughout the colonial period, and this 1945 issue came off the presses at Litografia Nacional in Porto — a domestic Portuguese printer rather than one of the London security printers more commonly associated with colonial currency of this era. The choice reflects wartime disruption to normal supply chains; access to Bradbury Wilkinson or Waterlow was considerably complicated by the mid-1940s.
Macau's nominal neutrality during the Japanese occupation of surrounding territories gave the pataca an unusual stability for a colonial currency in the region, though the local economy was under considerable informal pressure through 1945.