2.50 Escudos

Banco Nacional Ultramarino's 2.50 Escudo denomination is an oddity in any collection — fractional escudo notes were a direct response to wartime coin shortages, and by 1921 Portugal and its overseas banking apparatus were still managing the aftershocks of WWI-era metal scarcity that had gutted small change across the empire. The BNU served Portugal's African and Asian territories, and notes of this value were essentially functioning as coin substitutes rather than conventional paper currency.

Thomas De La Rue's printing is typically precise, though the small format at this denomination left little room for the intaglio detail the firm applied to higher values in the same series.