10 000 Réis Ouro 4th. print - overprint 'REPÚBLICA'

This note was originally issued under the monarchy and then overprinted "REPÚBLICA" following the revolution of October 1910, which deposed Manuel II and ended eight centuries of Portuguese kingship in a matter of days. The overprint was a practical stopgap — the new provisional government lacked the time and infrastructure to issue entirely new currency, so existing Banco de Portugal stock was simply stamped and returned to circulation. Bradbury Wilkinson had already delivered the printed sheets from their London works before the political ground shifted.

The overprinted examples are consistently scarcer than the base monarchist printing, as surviving unissued stock was not always converted — some was destroyed outright.