10 Centavos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position among colonial issuing institutions — chartered in Lisbon but functioning as the note-issuing authority across Portugal's overseas territories, from Mozambique to Timor. This particular 10 Centavos belongs to a fractional series introduced as Portugal's wartime economy began to bite hard. The outbreak of the First World War created severe small-change shortages across the entire Lusophone world, and fractional paper emergency issues became a practical necessity rather than a policy choice.

Bradbury Wilkinson produced the series at their New Malden works, which made London the physical origin of notes destined for circulation in Portuguese colonial territories — an arrangement entirely unremarkable for the period but worth noting given the wartime Atlantic shipping risks involved.