2 500 Reis

Banco Nacional Ultramarino occupied an unusual position in Portuguese colonial finance — chartered in 1864 with the exclusive right to issue currency across Portugal's overseas territories, it functioned less like a central bank and more like a privileged commercial lender with note-issuing powers. This 2$500 Reis note was printed by Bradbury Wilkinson at their New Malden works in Surrey, a firm that by 1909 had already established itself as a preferred security printer for colonial and quasi-sovereign issuers across the British and Lusophone worlds.

The Reis system was already living on borrowed time. Portugal decimalized in 1911, replacing the Reis with the Escudo at a rate of 1000 Reis to one Escudo, making this a late-series note issued just two years before the entire denomination structure was abolished.