10 Centavos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino's 10 Centavos of 1914 belongs to an emergency fractional currency program triggered by the acute coin shortage that struck Portuguese colonial territories — and Portugal itself — during the early war years. Silver and copper were being hoarded or melted, and small-denomination paper became the only practical substitute for everyday transactions.

Bradbury Wilkinson handled a considerable volume of colonial and dominion work during this period, and the BNU relationship was longstanding. P#40 places this note within a broader fractional series, though the 10 Centavos was among the lowest values committed to paper — an unusual concession for an institution that typically issued at far higher denominations.