See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration! or register with email

Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!

1200 Réis - Miguel I Overprint on P#16 - John Prince Regent

Issuer Real Erário (Royal Treasury of Portugal)
Year 1828
Type Log in to see details
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Size 146 × 95 mm
Shape Log in to see details
Printer Log in to see details
Designer(s) Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description The upper central vignette presents two allegorical children watering a flower, flanked by foliate branches and the Portuguese royal arms, with additional ornamental devices above and to the left. Below the allegorical vignette, the body text of the apólice is set in letterpress with manuscript signatures. A red revalidation handstamp bearing the Royal Crown, the name MIGUEL I, and the date 1828 is applied over the central text, reauthorizing the original note for continued circulation.
Obverse lettering Lisboa Nº_____ 1806 MIGUEL I Rs. 1$200 1828 Apólice do Real Erário do valor de mil e duzentos réis e não tem vencimento de juro na conformidade do Alvará de 2 de Abril de 1803. Lisboa, _ de _____ de 180_.
(Translation: Royal Treasury policy worth thousand and two hundred réis and does not bear interest in accordance with the Permit of April 2, 1803. Lisbon, _ of _____ of 180__.)
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Log in to see details
Signature(s) Log in to see details
Protection type Log in to see details
Protection description Log in to see details
Variants Log in to see details
Comments

When Dom Miguel seized the Portuguese throne in 1828 and declared himself absolute king, the liberal constitutional government's banknote stock became an immediate political problem. The solution was straightforward: overprint the existing João VI regent-era 1200 Réis notes with Miguel's authority rather than commission an entirely new issue. This was administrative improvisation under dynastic pressure, not a planned monetary reform.

The underlying P#16 plates dated from the Regency period, making these overprinted notes a palimpsest of two competing legitimacies printed on the same paper. Miguel's reign collapsed in 1834, and much of the currency tied to his government was subsequently withdrawn.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE