10 000 Reis - Miguel I Overprint on P#5 - John Prince Regent

When Dom Miguel seized the Portuguese throne in 1828 and declared himself absolute king, the existing paper currency posed an immediate legitimacy problem. Notes bearing the image and authority of his constitutional rival João VI — and the regency apparatus that followed — could not simply remain in circulation unchanged. The solution was a hand-applied overprint, converting earlier João VI-era stock into instruments of Miguelist authority without the expense of entirely new printing.

This particular overprint on P#5 stock makes the political calculation visible in the paper itself. Surviving examples are scarcer than the base note, partly because hoarding and destruction accompanied the instability of the Liberal Wars that soon followed Miguel's accession.