10 Patacas Banco Nacional Ultramarino, cyan

The date discrepancy here is the first thing worth understanding: while the note is catalogued as a 2003 issue, the printed date of 30 April 1945 places its signing at the very end of the Second World War — a period when Macau, as a Portuguese territory, had navigated Japanese occupation pressure with extraordinary diplomatic caution, remaining nominally neutral. The Banco Nacional Ultramarino continued operating throughout, which is why dated instruments from this period exist at all.

Thomas De La Rue's security work on this series is relatively basic by their standards — single watermark, no intaglio printing evident.