10 Escudos 1st. print

Banco de Portugal turned to Bradbury Wilkinson during a period when the country's finances were severely strained by the costs of World War One participation — Portugal had entered the war in 1916, and by the time this note was commissioned, inflation and currency instability had made smaller denomination paper urgent. Bradbury Wilkinson, operating from their New Malden plant in Surrey, were a logical choice: they had decades of colonial and European contract work and could deliver a secure, watermarked issue quickly.

The "1st print" designation distinguishes this from subsequent runs under P#117, which differ in minor typographic and shade details that specialists use to sequence the emissions. The window for issue — 1919 to 1920 — aligns with the immediate postwar contraction period, and surviving circulated examples frequently show heavy wear consistent with a denomination that passed through many hands in daily commerce.