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100 Escudos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Escudo (1914-1974) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Purple intaglio print on a complex multicolour guilloche underprint, with a portrait vignette of Dom Afonso V at right, the Portuguese Coat of Arms at upper centre, and the bank seal positioned at left. Inscriptions identify the issuing authority, colony, denomination, and date of decree across the face of the note. The rich purple dominant tone contrasts effectively against the intricate underprint pattern. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Purple intaglio print without multicolour underprint, centred on a vignette of a female allegorical figure alongside a view of steamships at sea, evoking maritime trade and colonial commerce. The Portuguese Coat of Arms appears at right, and printer's imprint is carried along the lower margin. The austere single-colour composition contrasts with the more elaborate treatment of the obverse. |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied a peculiar institutional position — it was a Lisbon-based private bank granted monopoly rights to issue currency across Portugal's overseas territories, a function it held for decades without being a central bank in any formal sense. This 1946 issue would have circulated in one of those colonial territories, though the specific destination is not marked on the note itself in a way that distinguishes it from other BNU series of the period.
Bradbury Wilkinson's New Malden facility was among the most technically capable security printers of the mid-twentieth century, supplying colonial currency to multiple European powers simultaneously — a commercial arrangement that sometimes meant plate designs migrated between issuers with only cosmetic alterations.