10 Mil Réis Thesouro Nacional, 2nd print

Brazil's Thesouro Nacional turned to Perkins, Bacon & Petch in London for this issue, a common choice for Latin American governments in the mid-nineteenth century who distrusted the quality and security of domestically produced paper. Jacob Perkins had pioneered the steel engraving process that made his firm's notes notoriously difficult to counterfeit — the siderographic transfer method allowed identical, fine-lined plates to be multiplied without loss of detail, a genuine technical leap over copper engraving.

The "2nd print" designation distinguishes this from the earlier striking of the same design, implying a fresh plate run or reorder rather than a revised type — a distinction that matters for attribution but is frequently collapsed by casual cataloguers.