Catalog
100 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Purple on multicolour underprint. Intaglio portrait of Francisco de Oliveira Chamico at left, with the bank seal at right and the provincial arms at lower centre. The design is framed by fine guilloche lacework with the denomination and issuing authority inscriptions arranged around the central vignette. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | PAGAVEL NAS DEPENDENCIAS DA PROVINCIA DE CABO VERDE BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO (Translation: Payable at the branches of the Province of Cape Verde National Overseas Bank) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — it was a private chartered bank, not a central bank, yet it held the exclusive right to issue currency across multiple Portuguese overseas territories simultaneously. This note was issued for Portuguese Guinea, one of several territories sharing the BNU's umbrella issuing authority, at a moment when Lisbon was working hard to keep its Atlantic colonial network intact while Europe collapsed around it.
Bradbury Wilkinson's involvement was commercially routine for colonial currency of this period, though the London connection carries mild irony given Portugal's strict neutrality and the Blitz-era conditions under which the printing would have been completed.