Catalog
2 500 Reis
| Issuer | Banco Nacional Ultramarino |
|---|---|
| Year | 1908 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | At left, an intaglio portrait vignette of Vasco da Gama; at right, a sailing ships vignette. The colonial arms appear at upper centre and the issuing bank seal at lower centre. A red overprint reading 'LOURENÇO MARQUES' designates the branch of issue. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL ULTRAMARINO O THESOUREIRO DA AGENCIA EM LOURENÇO MARQUES PAGARÁ Á VISTA AO PORTADOR DOIS MIL E QUINHENTOS REIS EM MOEDA CORRENTE VALOR RECEBIDO |
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| Comments |
Banco Nacional Ultramarino was the Portuguese colonial bank of issue across multiple overseas territories simultaneously — Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé, and others — and notes from this period were issued without territory-specific overprints, meaning a single printing could theoretically circulate across vastly different colonial economies. Whether this particular 2500 Reis issue was intended for general ultramarino circulation or a specific territory is a question the Pick reference alone doesn't resolve.
Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work from this decade is consistently precise, and the 1908 date places this note squarely in the final years before Portugal's monarchy collapsed in 1910.