20 000 Réis 9th. print - overprint 'REPÚBLICA'

When the Portuguese monarchy fell in October 1910, the Banco de Portugal faced an immediate practical problem: millions of réis in circulating notes bore the iconography of the deposed regime. Rather than undertake a full reprint, the bank applied a simple "REPÚBLICA" overprint to existing stock from the 9th print run — a stopgap that kept the currency system functioning during the political transition without the delay of designing and producing entirely new plates.

The overprint series spans several denominations, and P#109 is among the higher-value pieces in that group. Notes that saw heavy circulation through 1912 and beyond often show the overprint unevenly struck — a consequence of in-house application at the Estamparia rather than a controlled commercial press run.