Catalog
1000 Dobras
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de S. Tomé e Príncipe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1977 |
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| Size | 160 × 80 mm |
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| Obverse description | Blue, green, and multicolour underprint with a guilloche pattern. A vignette of banana plants occupies the centre underprint, while a portrait of Rei Amador appears at right and the national Coat of Arms is positioned at lower left. Inscriptions include the issuing bank name, denomination, decree-law reference, date, and signature titles for the Minister of Economic Coordination and the Governor. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL de S. TOMÉ e PRÍNCIPE MIL DOBRAS Decreto-Lei no. 50/76. S. TOMÉ e PRÍNCIPE, 12 de JULHO de 1977. O MINISTRO DA COORDENAÇÃO ECONÔMICA O GOVERNADOR (Translation: National Bank of St. Thomas and Prince Thousand Dobras Decree-Law no. 50/76. St. Thomas and Prince, July 12, 1977. The Minister of Economic Coordination The Governor) |
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| Comments |
São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence from Portugal in July 1975, and the Banco Nacional was established almost immediately as the new state's sole monetary authority — replacing the colonial Banco Nacional Ultramarino, which had issued escudos. The dobra was introduced at parity with the escudo, and this 1977 series represented the first substantive domestic monetary infrastructure for a country with a population under 80,000 and an economy built almost entirely on cocoa.
Bradbury Wilkinson handled security printing for numerous post-colonial African states through the 1970s, and the technical specification here is unremarkable — single watermark, cotton substrate, no metallic thread. The P#55 designation places it in the first independently issued series, before the 1982 revision.