10 000 Reis

Banco Nacional Ultramarino was established in 1864 specifically to serve Portugal's overseas territories, and by 1909 it held note-issuing authority across a sprawling network of colonies from Mozambique to Timor. This particular note's issuing context matters: BNU operated not as a metropolitan central bank but as a colonial concessionary institution, meaning its notes circulated under terms set by government charter rather than standard banking law — a distinction that occasionally created legal ambiguities when notes crossed between territories.

Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement places this squarely in the premium end of colonial currency production for the period. Their intaglio work for BNU in this era was technically accomplished, and the firm handled similar commissions for British, Portuguese, and Latin American clients simultaneously.

P#7 is among the scarcer early BNU issues for this denomination, with surviving examples relatively few given the note's age and the tropical climates in which most circulated.