2 Cruzeiros Thesouro Nacional, 1st print, Autographed

Brazil's Tesouro Nacional turned to the American Bank Note Company for much of its mid-century paper currency production, a relationship that predates this issue by several decades. The "Autographed" designation refers to the manuscript signatures applied by treasury officials — a practice retained well into the postwar period as a formality of authentication rather than a security measure of any practical effect.

The 1st print distinction matters here because subsequent printings introduced subtle typographic and plate differences that specialists use to sequence the series. Pick 133 is not scarce in circulated grades, but clean examples with both signatures intact and unsmudged are harder to locate than the catalog frequency suggests.