10 Patacas Banco Nacional Ultramarino

Banco Nacional Ultramarino issued this Macau note under wartime conditions that had effectively isolated the territory from normal colonial administration. Portugal's neutrality kept Macau technically outside the conflict, but Japanese military pressure throughout the early 1940s severely disrupted trade and currency supply. The 1945 date places this note at the very end of that compressed, anxious period — before the post-war restructuring of Portuguese colonial monetary policy began in earnest.

Waterlow & Sons produced the plate work in London. Macau's small circulation figures for this series mean that notes which did circulate absorbed wear quickly, while reserves were often damaged by the territory's humid subtropical climate.