1000 Reis Bolama seal

Banco Nacional Ultramarino had been issuing notes for Portuguese overseas territories since 1865, but Guinea was a late addition to that portfolio. This 1000 Reis note was the first catalogued issue for Portuguese Guinea — hence Pick 1 — and was produced by Bradbury Wilkinson in London, whose engraving work at this period was among the finest commercially available. The "Bolama seal" designation refers to the administrative stamp identifying Bolama, then the colonial capital, distinguishing this issue from BNU notes for other territories printed from similar or shared base designs.

Bolama lost its capital status to Bissau in 1941, a bureaucratic shift that makes the geographic marker on this note quietly historical.