100 Réis Casa da Moeda

Portugal's 1891 financial crisis — triggered by the suspension of gold convertibility in May of that year and the government's default on external debt — forced emergency measures across the monetary system. This 100 Réis note was among the lower-denomination instruments issued under those pressures, with Casa da Moeda acting as both printer and issuing authority, an arrangement that compressed normal institutional distances between production and release.

The réis unit itself was already archaic by 1891, surviving in Portuguese use until the milréis rationalization took firmer hold in everyday accounting. Notes of this denomination circulated hard and wore out fast.